12 Jul 2018

While many youths are applying for jobs which are not forthcoming, Ms Theresa Mokoka decided to venture into agribusiness to eke a living.

 In an interview with BOPA, Ms Mokoka who is predominantly on livestock production, said agriculture was a great business through which one could earn a living as it had a myriad of opportunities.

She said farming should not be a difficult vocation, seeing that it had always been a way of life for Batswana.

The Molepolole native, who recently participated at the Gantsi Agricultural District Show, noted that her passion for farming was ignited by her parents, especially her father, who was an expert in farming.

 She said she concentrated mainly on livestock rearing as it had always been her love, adding that she was looking forward to expanding her business to Gantsi.

She said she prefered Gantsi as the soil and weather conditions highly favoured livestock, adding, ‘above all there seems to be good business opportunities in the district’.

 “I only grow crops to feed the livestock to save costs, I do that occasionally though,” Ms Mokoka elaborated.

 She further said despite all the great things that have occurred, there are challenges that she had learnt to overcome by using them to her advantage.

She noted that one of the challenges were the stereotypes of farming being a preserve for men only, revealing however, that such had never discouraged her to be successful in what she wants to achieve.

However, Ms Mokoka said the challenges were not too stressful because the government was doing a lot to help the agriculture sector, citing many forums to assist upcoming farmers, especially the youth, as one of the government initiatives she was grateful for.

The young farmer has employed three people and says she is looking forward to there being more youth in farming. ENDS