15 May 2016

Takatokwane MP, Mr Ngaka Ngaka, has encouraged farmers in the Letlhakeng Sub-district to share skills and knowledge to enhance productivity in the area. Mr Ngaka was speaking at fodder field day at Masupula lands near Maboane recently.The event was organised to equip farmers with skills on lablab fodder production. 

He said sharing of knowledge would enable farmers to grow as well as raise competition among them, which in itself was a motivating factor for food production.Mr Nagka also said in this era where rains were erratic and unreliable, knowledge on fodder production was vital since farmers could no longer depend on free range foraging because of the regular occurence of droughts.

“Climate change should not discourage us from producing food, instead we should find ways to keep up with the changing times and periods of rains. This can be done through education to farmers on what varieties of crops do better and during which months,” he said.

Mr Ngaka also urged officers in the Ministry of Agriculture to consider thorough workshops for farmers committee members so that they could be able to disseminate information to other farmers.He said this was because officers could not always be available when farmers needed them because of other official duties, whereas the committee members could be accessed anytime.

For his part, the range management officer for Kweneng West, Mr Oemeleng Mochanang reiterated that ploughing for livestock was no longer a luxury, but a necessity in this era of climate change and encouraged farmers to focus more on crops such as lablab and similar species as they had proven to be more resistant to drought. He also said ploughing for livestock was vital during periods of droughts as it had proven to decrease mortality of livestock.

In his welcome remarks, the