14 Jan 2013

Horticultural farmers from the Gulushabe cluster in the Tonota South Constituency have been advised to cooperate if their businesses are to be profitable.

 The horticultural officer in Tonota, Mr Thabo Motlalenkwe said this during a consultative meeting with farmers and Tonota South MP, Mr Pono Moatlhodi on Friday.

 Mr Motlalenkwe said if farmers did not cooperate, they would continue to encounter the same challenges and would not find a solution.

 Mr Motlalenkwe informed the MP that they had long advised farmers to bring their cropping plans by December so that his office could assist in determining and advising cluster members on how they could rotate their crops but to no avail.

 Failure to prepare for the ploughing season, he noted, resulted in horticulture farmers growing the same crops at the same time which resulted in the saturation of the market and lower prices for their produce.

 As agricultural officers, Mr Motlalenkwe said, needed to have information on farmers’ cropping plans so that they could advise them on issues such as market access.

He decried the situation whereby farmers ploughed and brought their cropping plans during the middle of the year which was counterproductive and hindered them from getting value for their products.

 On other issues, he said that they advised horticulture farmers in the Gulushabe cluster to group themselves and make a request for ploughing tractors, something which he said failed because of lack of cooperation and poor attendance of meetings.

 The horticultural officer said it would be unproductive to bring a tractor to plough three fields when there were 72 farmers in the area.

Consequently, he informed the Member of Parliament that farmers were not organised, hence a benchmarking trip to the Tuli Block failed and highlighted that the agricultural office wanted farmers to move away from growing rape due to its low prices in the market.

Mr Motlalenkwe encouraged farmers to grow potatoes and to liaise with the agriculture business promotion officer at their office who produced reports on prices of different crops and advised farmers on the best seasons for different crops.

 The other problem with farmers in the Gulushabe cluster, he highlighted, was that they all wanted to sell their produce in Francistown despite the availability of a market in Maun, Masunga and Letlhakane.

Meanwhile, secretary of the Gulushabe horticultural farmers, Ms Kediemetse Bagayi informed MP Moatlhodi that their cluster area had 72 farmers, of which 62 projects were operating.

 She noted that out of 275 hectares, only 258 hectares had been developed. Further, she said that between October and December they managed to produce 1109 tonnes of vegetables for the market.

However, she pleaded with the MP to assist them with the improvement of the road network to their production units.

 She requested that the road should be graded frequently to reduce costs incurred on maintenance of vehicles.

On other issues, she urged the MP to assist them to get the second phase of the electrification project as fuel was too expensive when pumping water from the river. Ms Bagayi asked government to consider offering horticulture farmers a subsidy when purchasing fertilisers and said rampant sand mining in the Shashe River had a negative effect on the water supply as evidenced late last year. 

 For his part, MP Moatlhodi encouraged farmers to cooperate with the agricultural office if they were to be successful in producing food for the country. He said that it was worrying that even the country’s staple food maize meal was imported from South Africa, a thing he said was risky.

 He encouraged farmers to work as a collective and assist each other whenever they had challenges.

 He also promised to give them feedback on when Phase II of the electrification project to their farms would be kick started. As for the road to their farms, Mr Moatlhodi explained that the Department of Roads had made an undertaking to grade it frequently as it was of economic significance.

 He also challenged Gulushabe cluster members to consider diversifying into small stock production as it was also profitable. ENDS