16 Sep 2015

Horticultural farmers across the country have been encouraged to change their mindset and farming methods to help the country attain food security.  

The Minister of Agriculture, Mr Patrick Ralotsia made the call at the 23^rd National Horticultural Conference held in Maun  last week.  

He noted that Botswana still relied on importing food items yet it has a small population, noting that Botswana required 90 000 metric tons of horticultural produce yet only produced about 47 000 tons, a serious deficiency which translated to about P400 million on imports mainly from South Africa.  

Horticultural producers, he said should set their goal to achieve increased production in fruits and vegetables even in the midst of challenges such as climatic changes or natural disasters.

He pointed that government held horticulture in high esteem as having a potential in diversification of the economy.  

Minister Ralotsia said government also has put in place initiatives and programmes, which encourage institutions such as schools to buy from local producers, therefore said farmers should employ other methods of farming to produce quality yield with long prolonged shelf life.  

Furthermore, the minister expressed disappointment about half of the allocated agricultural land, which lie idle  across the country.   

He lamented that some beneficiaries of government agricultural initiatives also failed to be productive, a setback in the efforts made by government. He noted that government will not attain food security if producers’ mentality remained indifferent.  

Meanwhile, the minister encouraged the horticultural producers to use the national conference effectively to evaluate achievements going forward.

Commenting, farmers raised concerns of lack of market for their produce and decried that government should help them to secure markets. 

A horticultural farmer from Chobe, Ms Abedile Nkwane said although they were happy with progress made by Botswana Horticultural Council in finding market on their behalf, they needed government intervention for it to be successful. She said they were hard-hit by lack of markets. Ends