19 Apr 2018

Director for Agribusiness Promotions, Ms Kelebonye Tsheboeng has implored farmers to safeguard local plant genetic natural resources.

Delivering a speech on Tuesday in Francistown during an on farm genetic diversity conservation workshop on behalf of the Minister of Agriculture Production and Food Security, Mr Patrick Ralotsia, Ms Tsheboeng said with genetic resources, it would be possible to enhance crops and other biotec agricultural resources to ensure their resilience to environmental influences.

She said the traditional variety of species were able to sustain generations of Batswana and allowed them to cope with erratic rainfall and adverse weather changes. 

“Farmers are also encouraged to reintroduce into their farming system the lost ones so we maintain diversity on the farm.” She said. 

Ms Tsheboeng mentioned that traditional species offered a number of advantages to farming, some of which included adaptation to specific environments and maintaining a reservoir of continuously evolving genetic variability.

Earlier on, the director of Agricultural Research, Dr Pharaoh Mosupi said the intention of the workshop was to encourage farmers to utilise the National Plant Genetic Resources Centre at Sebele as well as to caution farmers on the importance of plant genetic conservation. He added that the conservation bank at Sebele was open to all local farmers who need its services as well as for research purposes.

For her part, the curator at the national plant genetic resources centre, Dr Tiny Motlhaodi explained that the purpose of the bank was collection and conservation of plant genetics in Botswana as well as conservation of seeds and other plant reproductive material.

She further explained that cultivated plants and their wild relatives as well as different wild plant species were conserved for future use. ENDS