13 Apr 2016

The Assistant Minister of Agriculture, Mr Kgotla Autlwetse has urged residents of Kacgae in Ghanzi district to start ploughing livestock feeds to sustain their livestock during drought seasons.

Mr Autlwetse said during a Kgotla meeting at Kacgae that Ghanzi District is not a high production area and most of the fields that have been ploughed did not yield anything.

He said the other reason for low produce was low and unreliable rainfall due to climate change hence this should be a wakeup call to the farmers to start ploughing crops which cope with the weather condition.

He encouraged farmers not to give up even though they would not get enough harvest rather they should start preparing their fields for the next coming ploughing season as the rains were promising.

He said farmers in the area should refrain from growing crops such as maize as they took to grow and rather they should consider ploughing beans and start venturing in the growing the lablab bean as they take up to three months to grow and they could be used as livestock feed to supplement their cattle and even sell to other farmers.

Mr Autlwetse said government was spending a lot of money on importing livestock feeds from the neighbouring countries which could be produced locally as government is supporting farmers through various schemes by providing seeds and fertilisers and also paying for the tractors which were used for ploughing.  

On other issues, he said it was high time parents started encouraging their children to go to technical and vocational colleges to acquire skills which they could use to establish businesses, create employment for others and even be farmers whom would produce for the country to be self-sufficient since white collar jobs were no longer marketable.

When briefing the assistant minister on the settlement issues, Village Development Committee chairperson, Mr Moffart Saidoo said their settlement was faced with shortage of water since the village was using one standpipe.

He further informed Mr Autlwetse that there was also shortage of water for livestock since Water Utilities Corporation did not provide water for livestock. For their part, the residents complained of high stock theft cases in their area, saying the thieves were dangerous as they were sometimes armed with dangerous weapons such as knives and guns.

They explained that the thieves have formed syndicates that operated from as far as Mamuno border. They said stock theft cases also took long be tried at the courts.

When giving vote of thanks, the area Member of Parliament, Mr Christiaan De Graaff urged the residents to continue utilising government programmes as they were meant for them and they did not discriminate across age and gender. ENDS