07 May 2018

President Mokgweetsi Masisi on May 5 hinted of new plans by government to capacitate farmers to develop their farms.

Mr Masisi made the announcement when officially opening the fourth annual Mosisedi cluster harvest day under the theme, Developing agriculture through strategic partnerships.

Although he did not give details of the programme, he said government was conceptualising the trial programme which would be rolled out before the next cropping season.

“Wait with bated breath, the programme would help you deal with your lack of capacity to develop your farms and you would love it immensely,” he said.

He said upon fruition, the programme was expected to address the challenge of undeveloped agricultural land across the country.

Mr Masisi had earlier expressed concern that some of the land, which could have otherwise been used to produce food for the nation, was not being utilised.

He argued that land was paramount to the economic fortunes of the nation and encouraged the owners to develop it to extract maximum economic value from it.

The President also shared that government would accelerate diversified and multiple use of already allocated land to drive economic diversification and job creation, revealing that land allocation for commercial agriculture would be fast tracked and adequate funding availed through development financial institutions to enable them to provide credit facilities to farmers.

He explained that the aim was to enable farmers to produce food for the nation with the ultimate goal of targeting the export market, adding that government was committed to developing a sustainable, technology driven and commercially viable agricultural sector.

Mr Masisi also assured the farmers that government would continue helping them control ‘bothers’ like army worms, quelea birds and baboons but encouraged them to report to authorities before such caused extensive damage to their crops. He said government would use helicopters or other means to ward off baboons from the farms.

He however, applauded Mosisedi farmers for developing the farms from 4 149 hectares out of a total of 9 570 during the 2012/13 season to 7 201 hectares in the current season as well as scaling up production from 4 297 tonnes for the 2012/13 season to 12 457 tonnes this season despite the challenges they encountered.

Mr Masisi described this as a significant achievement within a short space of time.

He furthermore thanked farmers for their quest to develop the enterprise through strategic partners like AFGRI Group, an agricultural services company with footprints in 14 countries including the United Kingdom, Australia and USA.

The Minister of Agricultural Development and Food Security Mr Patrick Ralotsia encouraged farmers to partner with anyone who could help them promote, modernise and fuel growth of the sector with a view to ultimately achieving food security.

Meanwhile, Mr Ralotsia warned farmers not to abuse some programmes availed by government, adding that the ISPAAD programme was under review with a view to avoid abuse.

Mosisedi Farmers Association chairperson Mr Quett Rabai had in his remarks complained of crop damage by baboons.

Mr Rabai however thanked President Masisi for his unfailing support through all the challenges they experienced and promised that his cluster would in turn work hand in hand with government as a way of showing appreciation.

He, nonetheless, said many farmers had inevitably saddled themselves with debt due to input costs.

South African- based AFGRI Group executive director Mr Mulco Manyama for his part said the marriage between Mosisedi and his company was first ignited by Mr Ralotsia and the Minister for Mineral Resources, Green Technology and Energy Resources Mr Eric Molale in 2015.

Mr Manyama said the company’s vision was to achieve food security across the African continent.

He said they assisted both emerging and large scale farmers because they believed agriculture was a source of employment, food and wealth.

He shared that his company had a storage capacity of over five million tonnes spread over countries such as Congo Brazzaville, Uganda, Zimbabwe and Zambia among others.

Mr Manyama said his company had opportunities for farmers to start as apprentices and graduate into technicians, revealing that they started with one apprentice but now had four.

He said their aim was to create employment wherever they operated and make farming synonymous with wealth creation especially for the youth.

Meanwhile, Mr Masisi flew a group of farmers and reporters over Mosisedi farms, just as he said he would last year, to enable them to view and report in a broader way. ENDS