27 Apr 2017

Production per unit is expected to produce a high yield regardless of the size, says principal crops officer, Ms Rakel Ruviana in Mopipi during Letlhafula day.
Ms Ruviana said a one hectare farm should have a high production, and urged farmers to use row planting to maximise production.
She said it was essential to test soils before ploughing and apply organic fertilisers according to the soils’ requirements.
In addition, she noted that foliar fertilisers which is a technique of feeding plants by applying fertilisers directly to the leaves was more effective than soil feeding.
“As a semi-arid country, Botswana is vulnerable to climate change and it places a high priority on adaptation,” she added.

Climate change, she said, was attributed to longer droughts, changes in rainfall patterns as well as outbreaks of crop diseases that affect subsistence farmers most.
The principal crop officer said it was critical to devise means of living with the impacts in order to reduce vulnerability, further encouraging the use of hybrid seeds, fertilisers and herbicides to destroy weeds.
Conservation agriculture, she said, was one of the measures Botswana was adopting as an adaptation measure against climate change, explain that “it is a set of soil management practices that minimises disruption of soils’ structure, composition and natural biodiversity.”
Ms Ruviana said conservation agriculture has proven potential to improve crop yields while improving the long-term environmental and financial sustainability of farming.
Furthermore, she noted that it had become difficult for farmers to plough in large numbers due to lack of resources. She however cautioned them for lack of passion on farming which has resulted in failure to stay in their farms. She however said they should take into consideration the expenses incurred through ISPAAD, adding that the programme could only be successful through the participation of farmers.
Ms Ruviana urged farmers to register their farms and harvest for purposes of record keeping.

For his part, Mr Tebogo Motingwa, sales manager at Cross Corn urged farmers to buy seeds considering the type of soil they plough on, as seeds performance differ in soils.
Mr Motingwa stated that there were ultra-early maturing seeds, early maturing variety, primary maturing variety and late maturing variety.
He stated that leguminous plants performed well on sandy soils whilst maize was suitable on loam soils.
Meanwhile, Kgosi Kesegofetse Patelelo said due to the heavy rains almost everyone in the village managed to plough.
Kgosi Patelelo said not all used the row planting method due to poor soil quality. ENDS