06 Aug 2015

Farmers need to adopt farming practices that  can mitigate the severe effects of high temperatures and prolonged dry spells.

“We should not surrender and abandon agriculture just because of droughts,” President Lt Gen. Seretse Khama Ian Khama said when officially opening the National Agricultural Show in Gaborone on Thursday August 6.

Lt Gen. Khama said the show’s theme: Practicing Smart Agriculture to Combat the Effects of Climate Change, encouraged farmers to be innovative and to resort to new farming methods. 

He encouraged the use of crop varieties that were drought tolerant and high yielding as well as the adoption of proper crop husbandry practices. 

The President said he was aware of lack of infrastructure in agricultural production areas.

However, he said government was committed to providing infrastructure at agricultural production areas such as Dikabeya, Glen Valley, Pandamatenga and Mosisedi.

He called for a change in attitude and practice, saying adherence to yesteryear’s farming practices would not help to grow agriculture. 

President Khama said government, through the Ministry of Agriculture, had initiated new approaches such as cluster formations and specialised production according to agric-ecological zones. 

President Khama said cluster formations would help farmers share resources amongst themselves and also to deal with input and service providers as a single entity. 

He said farmers who marketed produce as a single entity, would share costs of transport and be able to supply reasonable quantities of produce to traders without having to compete amongst themselves, ensuring continuity and consistency of supply.

He said it was a concern that many of Botswana farmers were still slow in embracing the cluster development initiative. Many farmers, he said, remained slow to adopt improvement and compliance measures such as keeping records. He cautioned that such sluggishness could only hold the country back.

President Khama said he was glad to note that agriculture had recorded steady growth, despite the challenges facing it. He stated that during the 2013/14 season, cereal production reached a record high of 215 000 metric tonnes while horticulture production grew to 47 000 metric tonnes this past season.

He noted that beef exports had also grown steadily since 2012 with BMC turnover increasing from P523 million to a record P1 billion in 2014.

The President said government had enacted the Livestock Improvement Act of 2009, which guided development of the sector. 

He said through the act, farmers were facilitated to invest in stud breeding to produce top quality breeding animals that could be sold internationally as live animals.

President Lt Gen. Khama noted that there were other partners who shared the country’s vision on new agriculture such as the Food and Agriculture Organisation and the African Development Bank.

He said the organisations were partnering with Botswana to improve the sector through projects such as fruit fly control and the Agriculture Services Support Project (ASSP).  Ends