18 Jul 2017

Assistant Minister of Agricultural Development and Food Security, Mr Kgotla Autlwetse has dismissed allegations that there is only one irrigation officer in the Central District responsible for developing horticulture or assessing agricultural fields for irrigation.

Speaking in Parliament on Thursday, Mr Autlwetse explained that the number of irrigation officers who had been deployed in the district was nine.

Five, he said were based in Serowe/Palapye/Boteti, two in Tonota/Tutume, one in Selebi Phikwe/Bobirwa and Mahalapye/ Machaneng respectively.

“The annual plan for the officers are always dictated by the number of requests from farmers who want to venture into irrigation projects,” said Mr Autlwetse, adding that the number of officers was adequate in the district.

He said the waiting period for farmers to be attended to in Boteti was one week. He said posting an officer to Boteti to cover the two constituencies would not be economical for now because there were very few requests for establishment of irrigation projects in the area. Boteti East MP, Mr Sethomo Lelatisitswe had asked the assistant minister if it was true that the Central District had one irrigation officer based in Serowe only. BOPA