01 Sep 2019

CEDA Francistown branch manager Mr Motsumi Yane says more farmers have advanced towards understanding the meaning of production per unit area.

Giving a keynote address at the Tonota West Farmers Day recently, Mr Yane said ‘I am very happy because these days there is an increase of farmers who take farming as a business’.

He encouraged farmers to further take advantage of programmes such as ISPAAD and LIMID which government had established to assist Batswana to develop the agricultural sector.

Mr Yane said the aim of such programmes was to improve household and national food security while at the same time eradicating poverty as the agricultural sector has the potential to create employment.

He said farmers were encouraged to diversify farming looking at the rainfall patterns due to climate variations and change.

He said farming diversification could include the addition of new produce or farming systems to agricultural production on a farm or re-allocation of some farm’s resources such as land, capital, farm equipment and labour to other products and even to non- farming activities such as agro-tourism.

Mr Yane emphasised that farming diversification could be facilitated by technological break-through, by changes in consumer demand, in government policy or in trade arrangements and by the development of irrigation, roads and other infrastructures.

He, however, said that research in Sub-Saharan Africa had indicated that crop diversification provided smallholder farmers with a diversity of diet, improved their income and nutrition.

On the other hand, he said a more diverse farming system could contribute to household food security.

He, however, said the relationship was influenced by other factors like the market orientation of a household, livestock ownership, non-agricultural employment opportunities and availability of land resources.

“Farmers in Africa have long adapted to climatic and other risks by diversifying their farming activities,” he said emphasising that crop diversification was an effective strategy to deal with climate variability.

Mr Yane said  in terms of the policy, the results implied that the current efforts by the government to intensify the promotion of crop diversification should remain a priority policy due to the continued malnutrition and food insecurity threats.

He, however, said another contributing factor to low crop productivity of the arable sub-sector was that some farmers were not committed and always shifted blame for their failure to natural disasters such as pest outbreak, livestock and damage.

Senior district crop production officer Mr Michael Kaetwa urged parents to encourage their children to engage in farming and embrace new methods of farming.

The theme of the day was: Diversified farming a captivating link to Climate Change and Food Security. ENDS