22 Jan 2015

Farmers in Semitwe in the Tutume Sub-district have appealed to the government to negotiate with financial institutions to fund them to purchase farming machinery.

The farmers made the request during a kgotla meeting addressed by their legislator, Mr Fidelis Molao on January 21. They said a majority of farmers had not ploughed due to shortage of farming equipment.

One farmer, Mr Boiki Kabelo expressed disappointment that tractor owners failed to assist them and as a result farmers could not take advantage of the limited rainfall experienced in the area. He said that tractor owners tilted the soil of many fields but never returned to plant the seeds.

Mr Kabelo said many of the fields had not been planted despite that tilting of the soil which was done last year between November and December.

He said as farmers they adhered to the government’s advice to use row planting in order to produce high yields but this had not worked for them because they had not ploughed due to shortage of tractors.

Mr Kabelo said they now have regrets that if they could have used the traditional method of broadcasting seeds, they could have taken advantage of the limited rainfall.
The farmers appealed to the government to help them get funding from financial institutions so that they could buy farming equipment in large numbers.

He nonetheless stressed that the whole burden of repayment would be on farmers not the government.
Mr Simon Mogome complained of stock theft and expressed disappointment that courts give perpetrators bail, adding that the same individuals continue committing same crimes while on bail.

He was of the view that the law tends to favour criminals over law abiding citizens adding that such a situation might compel people to take the law onto their own hands.
He said it would serve them right if they people could be allowed to use fire arms for protecting their livestock while at grazing fields where they are mostly targeted by the criminals.

Responding to the complaints, MP for Shashe West, Mr Molao said through improved ISPAAD, the government wanted to help farmers to improve farming and in return produce good yields.
He further said the National Development Bank (NDB) was helping farmers purchase farming equipment, adding that the government has also removed Value Added Tax (VAT) on farming machinery.

Mr Molao urged them not give up on farming and implored them to work as a unit, particularly those with farming equipment to make arrangements of how they were going to assist one another instead of wanting to grab more but failing to complete the work on time.

Regarding stock theft cases, he said there was a backlog of cases at the courts of law but something was being done to address the situation so that offenders could be brought to book. ENDS