24 Apr 2016

The realisation of the synergy and interlink amongst parastatals and enterprises within the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) is key to increased productivity in the sector, says Vice President, Mr Mokgweetsi Masisi.

Mr Masisi said during the Ministry of Agriculture first-ever roadshow in Kanye that both the government and general public would like to see the latter spur the rest of the country to export food.

 He thus stated that this could be achieved if research output by entities within the ministry translated into technologies that could be harnessed to mitigate challenges facing the sector. 

“The technology is available and support institutions are ready, as such you should find solutions to the challenges and implement them,” he said.

He was happy that MOA continued to take necessary steps to respond to challenges faced by  farmers.

Mr Masisi said government of Botswana had thus identified the agricultural sector as among primary areas of focus within Economic Stimulus Programme (ESP).

“When commercialised, agriculture has the potential for significant economic growth, in this regard government has identified the implementation of dairy strategy, provision of infrastructure to production areas and facilitation of market access and many others as primary sectorial strategies,” he said.

All this according to the Vice President, was intended to augment food security at both household and national level, create employment and meaningfully contribute to the country’s gross domestic product.

That withstanding, Mr Masisi noted that all skins and hides from Lobatse Leather Park would be processed to ensure that commodities were not exported in their raw form.

The Minister of Agriculture, Mr Patrick Ralotsia said the roadshow objectives were among others to demonstrate the interlink among parastatals within his ministry and how they fit in the food value chain, provide a platform for institutions to interact and discover each other’s capacity  in order to serve the nation better.

“It was also the intention of the roadshow to take the ministry to the people so that the public may understand services offered by various parastatals and how they can benefit from such linkages,” he said.

For his part, the Assistant Minister of Agriculture, Mr Kgotla Autlwetse promised his ministry would come up with strategies to turn around the sector. 

He was hopeful the roadshow had provided stakeholders with an opportunity to appreciate the status of agriculture in Botswana and will thereby come forth with interventions to further improve it.

Among participating parastatals were Botswana Meat Commission, Banyana Farms Pty (Ltd), Botswana University of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Botswana Vaccine Institute, National Food Technology Research Centre and Botswana Agricultural Marketing Board. ENDS