02 Dec 2015

The Minister of Agriculture Mr Patrick Ralotsia has encouraged beef producers in the Southern district to acquaint themselves with market standards and comply if they want to benefit from the industry.

Speaking during a field day organised by the Southern District Beef Farmers Association(SDBFA) at Dithotana farms near Tsatsu Artificial Insemination camp on Saturday Mr Ralotsia warned that non-compliance would see the sector benefit beef  finishers or feed lot operators more than the farmers who do the spade work.

Mr Ralotsia has thus advised farmers to visit Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) abattoir in Lobatse to get first-hand information on what the market required.

He said they should take advantage of the fact that Botswana beef has a lucrative market at the European Union and further explained  the local beef was preferred for the fact that most of it was produced from a pure natural environment.

Mr Ralotsia also Member of Parliament (MP) for the Kanye North constituency said farmers should strive to maintain the beef quality they produced to secure the market, adding that he who paid the piper called the tune.

Mr Ralotsia explained that the market discouraged animals to be slaughtered for consumption within a period of 40-90 days after vaccination to avoid vaccine residues in the meat.

He also explained that food should be handled properly during processing to avoid contamination especially with salmonella, a common beef poisonor which caused diarrhoea, fever and abdominal cramps for consumers.

 The minister has also informed the farmers that delayed payments were now a thing of the past at BMC because the abattoir was now able to pay farmers the same week they brought livestock for slaughter or within a space of 14 days. He said the abattoir has a slaughter capacity of 180 000 cattle a year.

He has further urged particularly communal farmers to keep reasonable numbers of stock to avoid overgrazing. 

On other issues the minister highlighted that the Kanye-Ditojana farm road would be graded through the Economic Stimulus Package Programme in an effort to create an enabling environment for farmers.

Guest speaker at the event and Orange Botswana director of client relations Mr Maano Masisi encouraged farmers to do farming as a business. 

Mr Masisi has also commended government for revolutionizing farming across the nation through programmes like CEDA Young Farmers Fund and Youth Development Fund among others. He said in the past farming was considered a job for the elderly. Mr Masisi also urged farmers to diversify products so they could have sub sectors support each other.

He explained that his company provided network to boost all sectors of the economy hence advised farmers to keep up with technology and enjoy the services.

For his part SDBFA chairperson Mr Boyce Mhutsiwa thanked government for Artificial Insemination services thus urged farmers to take advantage and improve the quality of their livestock.

However, he decried that the facility can only hold 6-7000 cattle a year which accounted for 0.04 per cent of the local cattle population.  Ends