12 Sep 2017

Southern District councillors have been informed that 22 929 farmers ploughed 105 770 08 hectares during the 2017/18 ploughing season in the district.

Southern District Council chairperson, Mr Alec Seametso informed the councillors during his address on Monday. He said subsistance farmers had ploughed 96 663 369 hectares which translated to over 91 per cent of total hectorage planted.

He said emerging farmers had planted 1 057 84 hectares which constituted one per cent, while commercial farmers planted 8 048 58 hectares which constituted about 7 per cent.

He said the overall crop forecast showed that the season promised to be good when compared to the previous cropping season.

‘‘I am informed that there is an outcry from some farmers due to rejection of their produce at market due to its poor quality induced by rain,” he said.

Mr Seametso said over 638 metric tonnes of cereal was harvested, 595 metric tonnes of leguminous crops, 315 metric tonnes of oil crops and over 117 metric tonnes of fodder crops was harvested.

He said subsistance farmers contributed only 14 per cent while commercial farmers constituted over 85 per cent.

The chairperson said he had been informed that payments in the district stood at 92 per cent.

He said the major problem to date was poor network coverage that hampered the processing of payments.

“The district is facing a challenge of late submission of claims by some input suppliers and farmers and contractors who failed to sign the certificates to date at extension areas,’’ he said.

The chairperson urged all stakeholders to play their roles as expected for the smooth running of the programme.

He also stated that rangelands had been affected by the winter season, hence low nutritive value, adding that this has caused weight reduction in livestock in lactating animals.

He appealed to farmers to reduce their livestock population in order to minimise grazing pressure as the winter season has negatively affected the pasture quality. Ends