18 Aug 2016

Residents of Paje have been called upon to tap on development pragrammes offered by government.     

Speaking during a kgotla meeting in Paje, area Member of Parliament, Mr Kgotla Autlwetse urged his constituents to take up government programmes intended to uplift them from poverty.

“Batho ba bangwe ba ipoka ka botlhoki ja bone mo ebileng o utlwa motho a re ntatemogolo e ne e le motlhoki, ntate le ene ke motlhoki, ke motlhoki le ngwanake e tla nna motlhoki,” said Mr Autlwetse, injecting into his people the spirit of self-reliance and calling them to shun poverty and seeing it as part of their family lineage.

Mr Autlwetse argued that programmes in farming did not attach academic qualifications as a prerequisite to benefit.  

He argued that from time immemorial Batswana have been farming even without having gone through formal education but, never lived in poverty.

He said that government has employed specialists and officers fit enough to help farmers. 

However, Mr Autlwetse observed that many framers did not utilise officers at their disposal.

Results of this lack of utilisation of specialists were observed in poor cattle production and lower yields in crop production. Subsequently, the assistant minister vouched for commercial farming at the expense of the traditional subsistence farming. 

He spoke of the need to go for maximum efficiency. 

“A hectare should yield more than 10 bags, less than that equate a loss,” said Mr Autlwetse and pleading with farmers to consider their efforts and that of government when calculating their losses. ENDS