04 Jul 2019

Integrated Support Programme for Arable Agriculture Development (ISPAAD) is being reviewed with the aim of achieving greater results for food security, says minister of Agricultural Development and Food Security, Mr Fidelis Molao.

Addressing a kgotla meeting in Nshakazhogwe recently, Mr Molao stated that food security was one major area which the government was working on improving to curb the food import bill. 

He highlighted that a lot of farming land is lying idle, and called on those who are not using their land to lease it out to others to produce food.  Mr Molao noted that over the years, government had been urging Batswana to go into cluster fencing and farming but many have been skeptical, whereas  government had availed assistance. He dismissed  as untrue, perceptions that those who used cluster fencing would lose their land. He said individual farmers would retain their fields’ certificates. 

He thus appealed to farmers in the area to take advantage of the arrangement and have their fields de-stumped through government assistance. 

He said recently, the government assisted farmers at Masunga and encouraged residents to benchmark with their Masunga counterparts. He emphasised that such an arrangement would enable them to market their area to attract well established commercial farmers to lease their land, which will in-turn empower and develop them as individual farmers or the cluster as whole.  

In addition, Mr Molao highlighted that they were about to establish a policy that would enable Batswana to change land use of their ploughing fields so that they could venture into agro tourism. 

He said the aim was for Batswana to fully utilise their land for their benefit and that of the economy as well.

He therefore appealed to all with land not to sell it but rather put it to good use by either leasing it out or turning it into something that would make returns. 

He stated that he would make arrangements for officers from the agriculture ministry to share more information on the reviewed ISPAAD. Ends