13 Apr 2016

An official of the Ministry of Agriculture has said  the  suspended  of Livestock Management  and Infrastructure Development and Integrated Support Programme for Arable Agriculture Development) was necessary.

The chief technical officer for animal breeding, Mr Olebogile Moseki said the suspension of both programmes was meant to give the Ministry of Agriculture time to eradicate backlog.

He was speaking during a kgotla meeting addressed by the Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Corporation, Dr Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi at Mmolawana lands near Serowe on Monday.

Mr Moseki who attributed this backlog to the depletion of funds in the previous fiscal year, explained that they would not accept any new applications till the suspension was lifted.

The suspension, he also said allowed the ministry enough time to review both programmes. Veterinary officer, Dr Phenyo Molalawesi said from last month the Department of Veterinary Services outsourced the selling of vaccines and livestock feeds to Botswana Agricultural Marketing Board.

However, Dr Molalawesi  said his department would continue giving advices to the pastoral farmers.

Also he said Department of Veterinary Services would continue selling livestock ear notches and provision of cattle brands services. Dr Molalawesi pleaded with farmers to copy identification information from their cattle ear tags and confirm with their veterinary officers if such information was still available in the system. ENDS