23 Nov 2016

The Assistant Minister of Agricultural Development and Food Security, Mr Kgotla Autlwetse, has told Parliament that his ministry believed that in order to improve food security, Botswana had to explore the use of both surface and ground water resources for irrigation and livestock production.

He said the ministry was promoting irrigation where there was enough water resources to produce food crops.

He stated that the ministry assisted  farmers by constructing ringed concrete wells to support water withdrawals for both irrigation and livestock under Integrated Support Programme for Arable Agriculture Development (ISPAAD).

Mr Autlwetse said, through this programme, they had also started clustering farmers and drilling boreholes for domestic use and possibly irrigation purposes where borehole yields were high.

He stated that the use of grey water is also being exploited as well as availing land to the private sector to address the issue of food security.

He stated that the Livestock Management and Infrastructure Development Programme (LIMID) assists farmers to drill boreholes in their farms to promote livestock production.

The assistant minister said the programme assisted farmers as individuals and or groups adding that for individuals to qualify they should own 61 to 100 cattle while groups should own 61 to 200 cattle.

Mr Autlwetse said the LIMID programme is meant to assist resource poor farmers with farmers or groups who own more than 200 cattle referred to CEDA or other financial institutions for assistance.

MP for Francistown South, Mr Wynter Mmolotsi had asked why farmers could not be assisted with borehole drilling in their farms if the country is to achieve food security and self-sufficiency.BOPA