30 Mar 2015

The acting Minister of Agriculture, Mr Patrick Ralotsia, has urged farmers in the Southern District to up their game.

Addressing the Southern District full Council meeting in Kanye on Mach 27, Mr Ralotsia said the district had potential to produce adequate food to feed the nation.

Although he commended farmers in the Southern District for using modern farming technologies and generally taking arable farming as a business, he said production had been declining over time even when the conditions were all favourable.

He explained that if all the 230 000 hectares allocated for arable farming in the district could be fully utilised, the nation could soon become self-sufficient in food. “We need 250 000 tonnes of food every year but if you were to produce 5.5 tonnes per hectare like you did in the 2013/14 ploughing season, we could raise 1265 000 tonnes,” he explained.

Mr Ralotsia, also Member of Parliament (MP) for the Kanye North constituency, stressed that it was risky for Batswana to rely on its neighbours for its food when they had resources like land and enablers like the available government assistance programmes and initiatives like ISPAAD to feed themselves and improve the quality of their lives, in the process.

 “We have land yet we choose to import food from our neighbours but unutilised land benefits neither the owner nor the nation”, he said. He raised a concern that only 88,780 hectares out of a total of 230 000 were planted during the 2013/14 ploughing season. 

Mr Ralotsia however, said his ministry had a target to have the total land allocated for arable farming in the district utilised by 2018. Mr Ralotsia also revealed that out of the 115 hectares allocated for horticulture production, only 26 hectares were being cultivated by 26 farmers thus challenged land owners to take farming as a business. 

He observed that the slump in production was, in a large part, caused by the fact that some land owners have aged but were reluctant to lease their fields to some capable youth.

“I visited the Ghanzi district last week and discovered that some farmers were producing potatoes and lucerne and even supplying the rest of the country. If they can do it in a traditionally hot and dry area like Ghanzi, what of you,”he asked rhetorically.

Meanwhile, Mr Ralotsia urged farmers to register for the coming ploughing season in time to enable his ministry to budget and plan ahead.

Commenting on the address, one of the councillors Mr Mosekisi Rangobana complained that the unavailability of soil testing facilities around the districts undermined government efforts to augment production.

 He said usually dry land farmers took soil samples for testing to Sebele in the hope that they would get results early enough to enable them to correct what could be lacking in the soil and be able to plough but often failed as a result of delays.

Mr Rangobana also suggested that the ownership of production land be made conditional to empower land authorities to repossess and reallocate when not utilised.

He has also challenged government to come up with a bank, tailor made for farmers. 

He argued that farming was a risky business.
Another speaker Mr Ben Lebogang urged government to review farm produce pricing with a view to motivate Batswana to venture into farming. He said the prices were still low.

Councillors have also advised government to provide infrastructure like roads and phone networks at the farming districts to motivate youthful farmers to stay at the farms and keep in touch with the rest of the world at the same time. ENDS