01 Jul 2015

Farmers have been urged to prepare fields through de-bushing, de-stumping, removing of stones, fencing and making access roads, among other things.

Botswana Agricultural Marketing Board chief executive officer, Mr Edison Woto gave the advice at an event to mark harvest day in Tutume recently.

Mr Woto said farmers should understand that government was encouraging them to play their part in ensuring sufficient food supply by assisting them with seeds, fertilisers and ploughing equipment.

He called on farmers to network with other stakeholders such as tractor operators.

He said it had been realised that farmers themselves did not prepare their fields well enough for trouble free ploughing, adding that frequent damage to tractor parts led to unnecessary delays in ploughing.

Further, he said, due to unreliable rainfall in the country, moisture ends up being lost before anything could be done resulting in the blame game between farmers and tractor operators.

However, he advised tractor owners to employ operators who are knowledgeable in using modern farming equipment, adding the lack of operating skills sometimes affected germination negatively.

The CEO also advised farmers to clear access roads to their fields instead of always pleading with government to provide such roads.

Mr Kopano Monyamane representing tractor owners commented that stumps led to extra costs in part replacement.

Mr Monyamane said their wish was to meet client expectation in terms perfecting land tilling; unfortunately, they failed because they used a lot of money repairing damaged farming equipment.

He however, promised that they will collaborate with farmers in all the areas of concern so that in the coming ploughing season everything is done accordingly. Ends