25 Feb 2016

Parliament has approved the budget for the Ministry of Agriculture for the 2016/17 financial year. 

The Minister of Agriculture, Mr Patrick Ralotsia had requested Parliament to approve a recurrent budget of over P1 088 billion and a development budget of over P813 million for the 2016/17 financial year.

Debating the proposed budget on Wednesday, MPs urged the government to invest in the expansion of agricultural services in order to ensure that every part of the country benefits from modern mechanised farming.

The majority of Members of Parliament (MPs) accepted the proposal while calling for the funds to be utilised to expand services.

Mr Maele, who is also the MP for Lerala-Maunatlala, said most of the people in the Tswapong Sub-district rely on agriculture, but that the area lacks critical services that could assist the area’s farmers to be more effective and productive. 

 “The Tswapong area is vast and lacks enough services despite the fact that most people rely on farming. We have nine small agricultural dams that need to be rehabilitated, and in the 16 villages of Lerala-Maunatlala constituency, we only have three veterinary officers. This means that some of our farmers have to travel 50 or even 70 kilometres to these officers,” he said.

 Mr Maele also urged the ministry to rehabilitate the small agricultural dams and increase the number of veterinary officers in his constituency. He also called for agricultural infrastructure to be availed.

 “The Tswapong Sub-district does not have a service centre which exists in other parts of the country providing farmers with crucial infrastructure such as tractors.  Since we have been told that our plea to have a service centre cannot be addressed in the short-term, we urge the ministry to at least increase the services availed to our area such as ploughing materials,” Mr Maele said.

 He expressed his constituents’ gratitude to the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) for availing an agricultural demonstrator at Goo Tau.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, also Serowe South MP, Dr Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi called for the Mogatsapoo Service Centre in her constituency to be supported.

“When the MoA introduced service centres,  Mogatsapoo was one of the first to be commissioned, but it still lacks the requisite infrastructure to support farmers.  

The service centre is meant to support farmers based in a large area stretching from Radisele to Palapye, to the Shoshong-Moiyabana and Serowe areas, and it is taking too long to be functional,” Dr Venson-Moitoi said.

Gabane-Mankgodi MP, Major General Pius Mokgware also agreed with the minister’s proposal, while calling for the modernisation of the country’s agriculture sector.

“We need a national food strategy to go along with the Revised National Policy on Agricultural Development in order to assist in proper planning for improving food security,” he said.

Maj. Gen. Mokgware added that areas such as the Western Sandvelt have agricultural potential, but that they have been poorly resourced citing a poor road network.  He also called on the MoA to have an internal unit to assist in fire fighting, in order to protect stockpiled agricultural products in places such as Sebele from potential fire.  Ends