21 Sep 2015

The Minister of Agriculture, Mr Patrick Ralotsia has appealed to farmers not to despair in the wake of meteorological reports that this year will be the driest.

Speaking at a Thanks Giving ceremony for this years’ national agricultural show sponsors in Gaborone recently, he said the reports were disheartening, but said rain or no rain food should be made available.

“The stomach will not condone explanations as to why there is no food,” he said. He said the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) should devise strategies of ensuring that food was produced with the little rain expected. He said there were countries that were dryer than Botswana, but still make enough produce with the little rains they receive.

He said after he was briefed by the meteorological services on this years’ forecast, he has engaged with some farmers and was continuing to engage them about the situation, adding that they would be assisted on what strategies to devise during ploughing so that they might produce more with little rains.

Mr Ralotsia further urged the private sector to play a role in ensuring that farmers were assisted. He said their immeasurable assistance to the agricultural sector had proven that their partnership with farmers could be of great value to farmers during production.

He requested the private sector to participate in the production cycle so that there was high quality produce born out of their contributions. 

Mr Ralotsia said in the midst of the water shortage in the country, the need for food was becoming more pronounced as the water needed for production of food was reduced.

He appealed to sponsors to continue to be the pillars of the national agricultural show. He said more developments were needed for the hosting of the agricultural show, noting that there was no exhibition hall, poultry exhibition hall, a hotel and other facilities in the plot that was about 82 hectares.

“Already we have one company which is interested in establishing a stadium and we are impressed about the proposal,” he said.

Debswana public and corporate affairs manager, Ms Esther Kanaimba-Senai said as the sponsors they were grateful for the appreciation shown by the ministry, adding that  it was not all the time that beneficiaries remember sponsors.

She said Debswana values the relationship with the MoA, and that it was for that reason that it sponsors the national agriculture show annually at the tune of P700 000.

 

“This is meant to encourage farmers to participate in the show because we believe it is crucial to diversify the economy away from mineral resources to agriculture,” she said. She said diamonds were a finite resource and that the private sector should work in partnership with MoA to grow the agriculture sector as it has the potential to grow the economy. Ends