19 Nov 2019

President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi has emphasised the need to develop the small stock value and increase production of goat meat and mutton.

Delivering the State-of-the-Nation (SONA) address on November 18, President Masisi said the demand for the goat meat and mutton stood at 1 700 and 550 tonnes respectively.

He explained that in 2018/2019 over 621 and about 319 tonnes of goat meat and mutton were produced in the country respectively. Dr Masisi said to transform the small stock sub-sector, government developed a small stock farm at Lobu, a project which would later be replicated in other areas.

He highlighted that 556 stud animals, of Dorper sheep and Boer goats had been acquired to improve the quality of the national stock.

Dr Masisi said the long term objectives were to improve productivity and commercialise operations, strengthen centres of excellence at strategic areas for farmers to benchmark and support upstream infrastructure development.

The focus, he added, would also be on securing markets locally and internationally through available trade agreements. He further added that government was in the process of developing an Aquaculture Development Policy and Strategy which would guide the country on how to develop the sub sector.

Currently, he added, government was operating a Fish Hatchery Rehabilitation project at Mmadinare which produces fingerlings.

To further promote fishery projects by communities, President Masisi said five community projects were at different development stages.

These are the Thito Village Development Committee (VDC) Integrated Fish Farming Project, Toteng Fish Farming Project, Kareng Project and Shakawe Region Development Support Society (SRDSS), he said.

Livestock Management and Infrastructure Development (LIMID) programme, he said was progressing well, adding that in the 2018/19 financial year, 6 909 applicants benefited from the programme and 3 718 of the beneficiaries were youth.

In an effort to promote agriculture, food production and security, Dr Masisi said government continued to implement the Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme. He said the scheme was primarily aimed at assisting farmers repay part of their loans in case of crop failure due to drought, floods frost and hailstorm.

The President explained that the scheme was being reviewed to align it with the developments in the agriculture sub-sector and to establish the feasibility and sustainability of extending it to cover additional agriculture sub-sectors and other causes of loss.

President Masisi also said domestic production in the horticulture sector had recorded consistent growth in the past years due to increased production of tomatoes and potatoes. The current production in horticulture produce stands at 63 487 tonnes, accounting for 42.4 per cent of the national demand of 112 000 tonnes, he added.

Dr Masisi pointed out that the restriction on importation of horticulture produce had contributed to the development of the local sector, noting that local production of vegetables had shown a steady production and an increase in the number of farmers taking part in the sector in the last 10 years.

The total number of horticulture farmers, he said, increased by 61 per cent from 400 in 2008 to 1 018 in 2018, while the output of the sector also registered impressive growth, increasing from 37 890 tonnes to 65 698 tonnes in the same period. Ends