03 Jun 2018

Members of the Tonota, Tutume and Masunga (TOTUMA) arable commercial farmers association have been commended for coming together for a common goal of producing food for Batswana.

 Officiating at the association’s 10^th anniversary and field day recently, Assistant Minister of Agricultural Development and Food Security, Mr Frans Van Der Westhuizen said the association had sent a powerful message to other clusters across the country that district boundaries could never be a deterrent to collaborating in producing food to feed the nation.

 In addition, he said over the years, farming had experienced challenges in the region due to unreliable rains and harsh climate.

He said some farms in parts of Gweta, Tsokatshaa and Zoroga were inaccessible after the past rains leading to delays in measuring them.

Mr Van Der Westhuizen said it was therefore imperative for farmers to adopt appropriate technologies to ensure that they continued to farm productively within the effects of climate change.

He thus assured the farmers of government support through relevant programmes aimed at addressing farming challenges.

Furthermore, he said the association was formed primarily to improve farming operations for the farmers to gradually graduate from subsistence to commercial farming.Meanwhile, the assistant minister regretted the advent of a trend where some farmers sub divided their farms into smaller units to benefit from free inputs offered to subsistence farmers through the Integrated Support Programme for Arable Agricultural Development.

 “I want to implore those in that practice to refrain from that because that does not only taint their image as farmers but it drains government coffers,” he said.

Mr Van Der Westhuizen nonetheless noted that despite such behaviour, there was still a crop of honest farmers who always abide by the rules.

Giving a brief on the association, its chairperson, Ms Priscilla Monthe said back in 2008 when they started, they were 10 and ploughing 250 hectares and over the 10 years of their existence, they had grown to 70 members cultivating 2 500 hectares.

She said in the just ended ploughing season, the three clusters planted a total of 21 265 hectares.

The activities of the day were held at one of the association’s members Ms Bokani Moalosi’s farm. ENDS