05 May 2016

 The Ministry of Agriculture will carryout eight projects under the Economic Stimulus Programme (ESP).

When briefing Sandveld ranchers recently, deputy permanent secretary in the ministry, Mr Boweditswe Masilo, said the projects included, greywater in Serowe earmarked for irrigation, Selebi Phikwe agro processing plant, electrification of agricultural production areas in Mosisedi and Shashe. Some of the projects included grading of roads to agriculture production areas.

On other issues, the deputy permanent secretary said his ministry was training agents on animal information and traceability system in order to collect information on their behalf. 

He said the project would engage unemployed youth and farmers would have to remunerate them upon completion of the exercise. The BAITS system registered, among others, mortalities and animal movements.

For his part , Barclays Bank business director Mr Potgieter told farmers that his bank was ready to assist farmers to improve their farming and consequently increased output.

In addition, Mr Potgieter said the bank would engage with Botswana Meat Commission to see how they could put together a financing structure where they could assist farmers in investing in infrastructure so that their farms could comply with European Union market.

Barclays, which sponsored the Sandveld Ranchers field day for P600 000 for three years, had budgeted for relationship managers to frequent farms and appreciate circumstances and challenges the farmers faced in order to devise relevant solutions.

Mr Potgieter said Barclays was making conscious effort to understand the industry better in order to assist clients. ENDS