12 Jan 2020

The Assistant Minister of Agricultural Development and Food Security, Ms Beauty Manake, has called for innovation in farming.

She said innovation could usher in sustainable solutions to substitute the status quo.

Ms Manake said during a kgotla meeting in Rakops on Friday.

She encouraged Batswana to produce not only to avert hunger, but rather for commercial purposes.

Innovation, she said, would also allow farmers to be competitive in the global market.The aim, Ms Manake  said, was to create an agricultural village where farm produce could be processed for packaging in one place, adding that innovation would also mitigate against climate change effects.

The objective was to opt for mobile structures such as mobile slaughter houses and mobile artificial insemination vehicles instead of permanent house structures.

Ms Manake said had identified a market for small stock outside the country, therefore, she encouraged farmers to be dedicated to small stock farming.

For her part, the Village Development Committee (VDC) representative, Ms Bashingi Boingotlo, said government tractors should be used to assist Boteti West.

In addition, the VDC representative called for maintenance of Makhi trust fence, which had been destroyed by elephants.

Ms Boingotlo requested development of the agricultural fair ground and also complained that there was shortage of livestock feed and drugs.

The agricultural coordinator in Central District, Mr Moagi Sinombe, said statistics indicated that Batswana bought tractors in large numbers and the only challenge was lack of planters.

The ministry, he said, had 60 tractors covering the whole country and as such, government sourced the service from private tractor owners.

Botswana Agricultural Marketing Board’s (BAMB) head of operations, Mr Bashi Ratshosa, said they would ensure that the area was supplied with a porta cabin for storage of livestock feed and drugs.

Mr Ratshosa, however, indicated that delivery of drugs from South Africa took long to arrive, adding that producers of stock feed failed to supply in large quantities.

On other issues, he urged farmers to embark on horticultural farming saying drones could be used to monitor plants growth rate.

The agricultural officer Ms Ikgopoleng Thamae, said Makhi fence was not budgeted for in the current financial year.

She stated that the ministry had made an arrangement with Debswana to assist with developing agricultural fair grounds across the country, therefore she encouraged Rakops farmers to submit their request.

Ms Thamae encouraged poultry farmers to cluster themselves and apply for funding. One of the residents, Mr Kopano Mabona, decried damage caused by elephants on their fields.

Mr Mabona called for re-opening of Francistown abattoir and complained that ear-tags service was not available, hence buying from private enterpreneurs.

Another resident, Mr Lamogae Motaung, said they failed to sell cattle to Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) because their buying price was too low and payments were not done on time.

BMC chief executive officer, Ms Mogobe Maseko had earlier on indicated that cattle slaughtered in 2019 stood at 79015, whilst Lobatse slaughtered 68 918 and Maun 10157.

Ms Maseko stated that cattle census in Boteti West stood at 55156 and only 1537 were delivered for slaughtering.

She expressed concern that farmers were not selling to BMC , stating that Boteti West should have sold 5200 cattle in 2019.

She stated that starting from next week, BMC would start buying from farmers for slaughter. ENDS