28 Jun 2016

MAHALAPYE - Agriculture is not about competition, but about farmers sharing ideas and challenges, Botswana Young Farmers Association executive member, Mr Omphemetse Ramooki has said.
Mr Ramooki said this during Kalamare citizen empowerment show, organised by Kalamare Young Farmers Club in conjunction with Kalamare Economic Development Trust recently.
He said agriculture was a joint venture where people shared information, adding that farmers should come together to share their success and how they could tackle their challenges.
Mr Ramooki said agriculture was about how open people were with their knowledge.
He explained that for farmers to grow in agriculture they had to engage in agriculture that can boost their lives and the economy of the country.
Mr Ramooki said it was high time people realised that agriculture was the future of the country that could help to eradicate poverty just like in the olden days.
He said using new techniques to overcome climate change was a requirement in agriculture.
The country, Mr Ramooki said,  had experienced minimum rainfall and in some parts of the country, the rains came after the ploughing season had lapsed.
He said farmers should be patient and come up with ideas of how they could tackle these challenges, adding that they should come up with new techniques of how they could preserve water.
He said climate change was a big obstacle in agriculture and this was when farmers needed to stand together, come up with initiatives and techniques that they could use to address these issues.
 Further, Mr Ramooki said as farmers they should desist from taking agriculture as a retirement package but rather take it as a way of survival and business.
He said if farmers start treating agriculture as a business entity it could be very beneficial not only to them but to the country as they would also be addressing issues of unemployment especially amongst the youth.
He noted that farmers should make use of government initiatives, liaise with organisations such as CEDA, LEA and the Ministry of Lands and Housing.
Mr Ramooki said at BYFA they liaise with young farmers, share ideas on how they could benefit from government initiatives such as LIMID and ISPAAD.
He said they encourage young people to get into farming which can be beneficial to them, adding that at BYFA they have also partnered with Haskins so that young farmers can get farming equipment at a discount.
Mr Ramooki applauded Kalamare youths and encouraged them not to give up but continue to encourage others to get into agriculture.
He also applauded Kalamare Economic Development Trust and the village leadership for their continued support in encouraging young people get into agriculture.
For his part, member of the Kalamare Young Farmers Club, Mr Matshelo Ntlotlang said their club was an educative, supportive and motivational club that raises agricultural awareness and create potential farmers amongst the youth and aspiring farmers to start agribusiness.
Mr Ntlotlang said the aim of the show was to lure the youth of Kalamare to get into agriculture, since they were the most hit by unemployment.
He said they also wanted to invite different stakeholders to come and teach the youth on how they could benefit from different government and non-government agricultural related initiatives. ENDS