16 May 2016

A prominent farmer of Sebokwane farms near Ntlhantlhe has showered Integrated Support Programme for Arable Agricultural Development (ISPAAD) with praises observing the programme is tailor made to alleviate poverty as well as ensuring food security in the country.

Speaking in an interview on Friday, Mr Hiwa Moreki said since the inception of the programme in 2008/9 financial year he has always obtained a good harvest despite poor rains in some ploughing seasons.

He added that during good rains, he often obtains bumper harvests and therefore thanked the leadership for introducing the programme noting it was capable of touching the lives of many Batswana who had limited resources to plough.

The farmer had recently donated 250 water melons to senior citizens in Ntlhantlhe worth  P7 500 as a way of thanking God for the bumper harvest.

He attributed his farming success to the programme noting a positive approach of the ingenuity yields meaningful results as it had proved over the years that the programme was capable of touching the lives of many unfortunate Batswana.

It is said far and wide that the earliest bird catches the fattest worn, therefore as for the 2015/16 ploughing season, Mr Moreki emulated the early bird thus he utilised the first rains to plough beans in which he obtained a bumper harvest despite poor rains.

He said he obtained over 30 bags of high quality beans that he sells to Botswana Agricultural Marketing Board (BAMB) and is expecting over P15 000 from the produce.

He said he also obtained 40 bags of low quality beans that he processes into fodder, adding that he had stock-piled 500 bags of fodder in which his prices range from P50 per bag to P110 depending on quality of the mixture.

The farmer has a broader base of clientele country-wide but mostly supplies ranchers in Ghanzi district on regular basis.

Mr Moreki said he is going to pocket P50 000 from government for ploughing for people under the programme using his tractor during the 2015/16 ploughing season hence he feels obliged to donate his produce to other people as a token of appreciation for the government’s God sent programme to alleviate poverty.

However, he challenged farmers to take care of their ploughing fields and criticized those who deserted their farms  after getting help through the programme noting they had to consider opportunity cost. ENDS