29 Jun 2017

A farmer from Sebina, Mr Uyapo Macha has expressed happiness that summer rains have brought joy to his life because he has harvested more than he was expecting.

In an interview, he said at first he had thought the rains would wash away the seedlings he had planted as he started ploughing six hectares on his field in mid-December 2016.

He said he planted sorghum, maize, groundnuts and cowpeas using his tractor, but did not use the popular method of row planting.

He used broadcasting method.

Mr Macha also said as the rains continued to pour heavily between January and February, he could only manage to uproot the weeds as harrowing was a hard task.

He further said that his plants grew very well until some Quelea birds invaded his field, but he did manage to scare them away.

The farmer also said that at the end of May, he hired some people to harvest his crops and take them home for threshing, which he finished on June 12.

He further stated that he was satisfied with the 12 bags of sorghum, 10 bags of maize and 18 bags of groundnuts.

He will be able to feed his family and sell some to Botswana Agricultural Marketing Board.

He encouraged the youth to venture in to farming as it is profitable. ENDS