13 Aug 2013

Ministry of Agriculture has prioritised the construction of 15 agriculture service centres countrywide, Assistant Minister Oreeditse Molebatsi has said.

Responding to a parliamentary question from MP for Letlhakeng West, Mr Ngaka Ngaka, Mr Molebatsi said prioritisation was based on the soil suitability and level of arable production in a given locality.

He said in this regard, there was only one service centre in Monwane in Kweneng District, which had four tractors that assisted farmers in Monwane and surrounding areas within a radius of up to 20 kilometres.

Furthermore, the assistant minister said, owing to shortage of funds, there were no plans to establish a service centre in Letlhakeng West or any other constituency. “However, we hope the private sector would also come on board and assist farmers. My Ministry has no plans to increase the number of ploughing equipment beyond what we currently have,” Mr Molebatsi said.

This, he said was primarily due to shortage of funds, “but in addition the provision of government ploughing equipment was a temporary measure meant to staff-off the ISPAAD programme, after which the private sector was to be the major driver of this intiative.”

Mr Molebatsi believes that “this is a business opportunity that the private sector should seize. Even the earmarked service centres will ultimately be handed over to the private sector farmers to run themselves.”

MP for Letlhakeng West had asked the minister if he was aware that government ploughing equipment at Monwane, in Letlhakeng East constituency were based too far to cover Letlhakeng West constituency.

Mr Ngaka also wanted to know when Letlhakeng West constituency would be supplied with its own equipment and what delays the increasing of the equipment, given that it could not. Ends