12 Dec 2019

Chairperson of Chobe District Council, Mr Amos Mabuku, says the district takes with keen interest the recent State-of-the-Nation Address (SONA) particularly on the issue of exploring agriculture and tourism for creation of sustainable jobs.

Addressing a full council meeting on December 10, Mr Mabuku said since the two sectors dominated the district economy, the leadership would follow up on how the community could be engaged.

He said the Pandamatenga Special Economic Zone, Agro-Zambezi and Kasane/Kazungula Redevelopment Plan projects were some of the examples that the district would follow  during the current plan period.

Mr Mabuku said during the current ploughing season, a total of 615 farmers, which translated to 572 small-scale farmers and 43 commercial farmers, had been registered for assistance through the Integrated Support Programme for Arable Agricultural Development (ISPAAD).

He said 52 farmers collected seeds from the Department of Crop Production and further distribution was on-going.

Mr Mabuku said 30 ISPAAD contractors with implements were registered to assist farmers and mobilisation of government farm machinery and implements was in progress.

On livestock pest and disease management situation in the district, he said campaigns and surveillance of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) were completed in November and sample of the disease were collected and taken to the laboratory but the results were negative, which indicated that success of the efforts to maintain the district FMD free.

He commended the cooperation of the farmers and encouraged them to pay attention to other diseases such as dermatolophilosis and lumpy skin disease. 

Mr Mabuku advised farmers to submit ear tags information for their cattle to extension agents so that they could be entered on Botswana Animal Information and Traceability System (BAITS 2.0).

The council chairperson said since the grazing situation in the district was currently fair to poor whilst the water situation was still good,  he urged farmers to use supplementary feed for their livestock as feed price subsidy was increased from 25 to 35 per cent and expanded to sector such as poultry, dairy and piggery.

Mr Mabuku urged councillors to encourage the community to take their cats and dogs to veterinary offices for routine rabies vaccination.

On the Poverty Eradication Programme, Councillor Mabuku said 579 people were mobilised and a total of 499 beneficiaries enrolled in the programme with 391 fully funded of which 260 were operational while 64 were non-operational and 59 failed.

Regarding the Youth Development Fund (YDF) for the current financial year, Mr Mabuku said a large number of youth tendering their proposal was realised leading to the YDF almost tripling the usual number of 25 to 73 entries.

He said YDF loan repayments of the  funded projects was satisfactory as already 122 per cent of the targeted amount was collected leading to the Chobe district topping all the 12 districts in the country. Ends