26 Oct 2017

Members of Ntlo ya Dikgosi visited Impact Genetics at Desert Ranch Reproduction Management Centre based in Mmamashia to appreciate their efforts to improve and grow farming in Botswana.

In his opening remarks, chairperson of Ntlo ya Dikgosi, Kgosi Puso said they were happy to visit the facility, which focuses on cattle breeding through advanced technology.

He thanked Mr Monametsi Chiepe, owner of the Impact Genetics for allowing them to visit the place to learn about its operations.

Kgosi Puso said as dikgosi they were the pillars of nation building, hence they needed to learn and share this noble initiative.

He said he was happy that the facility was run and directed by a Motswana, hence the need to support his efforts to improve farming.

Kgosi Puso further said they had to know that they had a facility like this in Botswana and people could come from other countries to benchmark from him.

He said the visit would go a long way in providing an opportunity for dikgosi and their merafe to improve their farming methods as most of them were farmers.

He said they appreciated the good initiative and it would help them shape and inform government policies and programmes on farming for the betterment of agriculture.

Presenting the concept of Impact Genetics to members of Ntlo ya Dikgosi, Mr Chiepe said Desert Ranch is the ranching and farm based animal production, which started commercial farming in 1994 in a cattlepost and Brahman stud breeding in 1996.

He said they were glad that Dikgosi had visited them while they were still planning to make a presentation to them at Ntlo ya Dikgosi.

Mr Chiepe said Impact Genetics was launched in 2014 and the programme was shown to the Ministry of Agriculture.

Impact Genetics is the reproductive technologies and performance measurement division that is focused on best practices, quality assurance and breed compliance, he added.

“We have from the onset believed in medium framed cattle that do well under pasture conditions. This is what our ranching has looked and bred for. In 2012, we selected the top three per cent of our best performing and diversified genetic lines to do the proof of concept for programmes to supply Africa with the very best genetics through scalable and viable production models,” he said.

He said they had imported over 150 Brahman cows and bulls from South Africa as well as semen and embryos from Texas, USA from leading Brahman breeders.

Mr Chiepe said Impact Genetics would like to work with farmers and communities to improve their herd quality and population.

He said they would like to help farmers build their own quality Brahman stud herd, build their own commercial herd and upgrade own herd through Impact Genetics programme.

He said through this programme, they would have uplifted communities and farmers, capacity building and national herd improvement and increase.

Mr Chiepe asked dikgosi to help in spearheading this programme as it could be valuable to the communities.

He also encouraged them to form community trusts, associations and cooperatives, which could benefit from the programme.

He said he would also like to work with marginalised members of the society, orphans and disabled to establish revenue earnings.

Members of Ntlo ya Dikgosi appreciated the concept of Impact Genetics programme and initiative and applauded Mr Chiepe for sharing his knowledge with them.

Kgosi Mosadi Seboko said she was thankful for the knowledge and wisdom shared by Mr Chiepe and his heart to share his farming experience with other Batswana and working with communities to improve their living standards.

In his vote of thanks, Kgosi Toto II said they were grateful for the visit as they had learnt a lot.

He said the programme could take the country far and reach the international market while the lives of people could be turned around for good. ENDS