29 Apr 2019

Minister of Agricultural Development and Food Security, Mr Patrick Ralotsia says the prevailing climate situation has led to a reduction in production which is not good for the agricultural sector and frustrates efforts to reduce the import bill.

Mr Ralotsia, also MP for Kanye North was officially opening Sandveld Ranchers Association (SRA) farmers’ day held at Xeatshaa cattle ranch recently themed, Opportunities and Challenges in the Beef Industry and Value Chain.

He said the theme came at a time when government and the industry were working towards improving the sector adding that climate change continued to affect farmers’ operations daily.

Mr Ralotsia said government’s role was to ensure that appropriate policies and legislation were in place to enable collaboration and coordination between producers and stakeholders in the beef industry in order to grow the industry to effect good governance.

“I implore you to look at effective ways to adapt to the changes and also mitigate the effects of climate change in order to improve our production,” he said. He said the work of farmers was to produce raw material in the beef industry and significantly contribute to the beef value chain.

Doing so, he said would enable other players to play their part.

He stated that the beef industry was undergoing transition through the beef liberalisation strategy, privatisation of Botswana Meat Commission and the Beef Cluster Initiative.

He said the intention of the initiatives was to ensure that the industry was revitalised to benefit both farmers and investors.

“A Drought Management Strategy is also being developed for Botswana and farmers input in the draft will be sought. The strategy acknowledges the fact that drought should no longer be treated as an emergency but rather a norm,” he said.

The strategy, he said would assist government and the private sector to plan for drought episodes.

He further said that there was an estimated 1.2 million cattle in the Central District but there were only 503 registered holdings, 171 ranches and 322 communals.

He said 26 ranches had been audited for European Union (EU) compliance and only 17 were compliant.

He said the cattle population in the area dictated that a collective effort between the government and farmers should be made to ensure access to the EU market and other lucrative markets.

He said all the zones were green and their proximity to each other made government interventions relatively feasible.

“Such interventions would include but not limited to provision of infrastructure and marketing through any outlet especially BMC,” he stated.

He explained that livestock feeds subsidy would continue upto June 30, because government had realised that the country was prone to drought and experienced law rainfall this year.

Earlier, SRA deputy chairperson, Mr David Merementsi proposed that government consider allowing farmers to export live cattle and also expedite the liberalisation of the cattle industry.

Banks and other financial institutions that service the cattle industry, he said must be lenient and consider the strain the drought put on farmers’ finances.

“Farmers at Sandveld have long complained about the poor road and communications infrastructure, we should by now be seeing some activity on the identified track routes,” he said. ENDS