17 Mar 2016

There are no plans under the recently introduced Economic Stimulus Programme (ESP) to extend roads, electricity/solar and telecommunications infrastructure to Sandveld, 4B and Kaka ranches.

The  assistant minister of Agriculture, Mr Kgotla Autlwetse revealed when responding to a question in Parliament on Wednesday, saying there was no any package under ESP reserved for the farming community in the area.

He added that there were 210 ranches in Sandveld, 4B and Kaka areas, of which 14 were syndicate owned and that the minimum number of commercial farmers in the ranches was 210, while the cattle population in was 44 551.

Mr Autlwetse further said that these areas sent cattle for slaughter only at the Francistown Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) abattoir, consisting of 1794 cattle in 2012; 2754 in 2013; 3324 in 2015 and 1455 in 2015.“If the road from Letlhakane-Khwee was tarred, it  would make the transportation of livestock easier than it is now with gravel road. 

Since budgeting for ESP for the coming years has been complete and the road is not included here, it will not be possible to motivate it as finance is a limiting factor,” Mr Mr Autlwetse said.

The assistant minister was answering a question from the Member of Parliament for Boteti East, Mr Setlhomo Lelatisitswe, who had had asked the minister if there were any plans to extend roads (gravel), electricity/solar and telecommunication infrastructure to the Sandveld, 4B and Kaka beef farmers through the national grid to enable beef producers to upscale their production with regard to medication management and the level of temperatures required for storage of livestock medical supplies.

He had also asked if this would be considered under the ESP, and for the minister to state the package reserved for this farming community under ESP.

Mr Lelatisitswe also wanted to know how many commercial farmers were found in this area, and the population of their livestock as of today; how much these farmers contributed to the Botswana economy through Lobatse and Francistown BMC abattoirs; what impact would the tarring of Letlhakane-Khwee road have on cattle farming on the concerned area and if the minister would consider motivating for the tarring of Khwee-Letlhakane road under ESP to promote agriculture in this zoned area.  Ends