07 Jun 2018

Kweneng north arable farmers have embraced different varieties of sorghum originating from Australia.

The sorghum variety, which was first introduced to local farmers in 2013 at Pandamatenga, only reached Kweneng District beginning of the ploughing season this year.

 The seeds of the sorghum, which are namely M R Bazley, NS5655, MR Taurus and Kalahari, belong to a company from Australia called Pacific seeds.

Chief agronomist, Mr Thomas Mogome, says farmers have been requesting the seeds since they have been doing exceptionally well in Pandamatenga and they wanted to experiment with them.

“After receiving many requests for the seeds, we distributed them across the country for farmers to give them a try,” he said, adding that in northern Kweneng not all farmers received seeds as they were skeptical about them.

“However, I am optimistic that farmers who received seeds and practised good farming will have a better harvest of the sorghum,” he said.

Mr Mogome also went on to indicate that since climate change was upon farmers, they ought to find ways of adapting to such conditions, especially that the seeds were said to be drought tolerant.

He said studies have also indicated that the seeds were capable of doing well in areas that received low rainfall.

According to the agronomist, it had also been found that they reached maturity level early as compared to other seed varieties.

“Our country at the moment finds itself experiencing low rainfall during the ploughing season and such seeds are ideal,” he noted.

Mr Mogome observed that although Batswana were not yet familiar with this kind of sorghum, he assured that they were just like any other sorghum in the country in terms of palatability.

“It has been five years since the sorghum has been planted and harvested in Pandamatenga and we have only been receiving good feedback.

We can trust that even northern Kweneng farmers will also provide good feedback about the sorghum,” he said.

One arable farmer, Mr Olefile Moroke indicated that at first, he was skeptical about the seeds as it was his first time ploughing them. He said the seeds of the sorghum were harder than the local seeds he is used to and when they germinate they become short as compared to other sorghum variety such as Segaolane.

“I am yet to taste and give feedback to the field demonstrators. The sorghum does not require any special treatment as all I did was to make sure that I practised good farming practices” he said.

 Farmers were advised to shy away from planting many hectares of maize than sorghum. It was revealed that during the 2017/2018 season, 260 hectares of sorghum was planted, compared to 310 of hectares planted in the previous year. Mr Mogome indicated that maize required a lot of water and was unable to perform well under drought conditions.

“Batswana farmers have a tendency of planting maize in their fields than sorghum while unaware that sorghum is our stable food and it is mostly required in the country as compared to maize. I urge the farmers to plant more sorghum in their fields than maize.

The introduction of these seeds does not mean that farmers should abandon our local seeds, we want them to plant both and do the comparison themselves and stick to the variety they prefer,” encouraged Mr Mogome. ENDS