20 Jan 2020

The Minister of Finance and Economic Development Dr Thapelo Matsheka says discussions are ongoing to let local dairy farmers use facilities at the Milk Afric dairy farm in Lobatse.

Physical construction of the farm, which is a public private partnership project between Milk Afric Company, Botswana Development Corporation (BDC) and Lobatse Town Council, was said to be complete.

However, authorities last year said they had encountered delay in commencement of operational activities at the farm after the arrival of dairy cows purchased from South Africa was held up due to the outbreak of Foot and Mouth disease in that country.

The place has thus remained idle for many months while the wait for dairy cows continued.

Addressing Kgotla meetings at Peleng and Woodhall customary courts on Thursday and Friday respectively, Dr Matsheka who is also MP of Lobatse, said the town leaders would explore an arrangement by which the farm’s facilities could be put to productive use in the meantime.

“I will engage with council authorities to resolve the issue. We will see what to do with the facilities since the dairy cows cannot be transported to Botswana at the moment from South Africa because of Foot and Mouth disease.

One of the things we are thinking about is to let some dairy farmers in this area make use of the Milk Afric facilities instead of leaving the place to stay idle,” Dr Matsheka said.

He said they were in the process of discussing the issue with the association of dairy farmers, adding that their main interest was to see the farm operational and productive soon because it was among the projects that could transform economic activities in Lobatse. “Having the Milk Afric dairy farm operational will assist in creation of employment in Lobatse,” he said.

When constructed, the dairy farm was planned to have a carrying capacity of around 2 000 dairy cows when fully operational.

The farm was expected to significantly increase levels of milk production in this country.

The Ministry of Agricultural Development and Food Security last year said Botswana was unable to meet its annual dairy demand because milk production was very low in this country.

It said the local milk production was nine million litres per annum, while the country’s annual milk demand was 65 million litres.

The ministry has attributed the low production down to the small dairy head in Botswana which is about 4 000 cows. Ends