10 Nov 2020

All goats and sheep will be registered under the Botswana Animal Traceability System (BAITS) in order to comply with the market requirements.

Delivering the State-of -the -Nation Address on November 9, President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi said government had secured market to supply goat and sheep meat in the Middle East and Europe and that modalities were underway to meet market regulatory requirements in targeted countries.

He said farmers would also be required to tag their goats with electronic ear tags as part of the compliance.

Government, he said, had identified three export slaughter facilities for goats and sheep at Botswana Meat Commission in Francistown, the Multi species Abattoir of Botswana in Gaborone and the Meat Inspection Training Institute abattoir in Lobatse. 

President Masisi emphasised government’s plan to improve small stock at farm level, saying that government had rejuvenated Lobu Farm in Kgalagadi District where stud and commercial stock of sheep and goats were bred and sold to farmers to improve genetics of their animals.

The Lobu farm concept had being replicated at Impala Rural Training Centre in Francistown to cater for farmers in the north, while other government farms would be readied for allocation to citizen small stock farmers before the end of financial year, he said.

Still under agricultural sector, Dr Masisi said the National Policy on Agricultural policy was under review and it would address emerging challenges and create jobs for young people as well as making agriculture more inclusive and attractive. 

As a further boost to agriculture, President Masisi also announced that the government was reviewing the Integrated Support Programme for Arable Agriculture Development (ISPAAD) with the intention of creating an efficient and sustainable programme.

He said the new programme would be launched during the course of 2021 and some of its elements would include de-bushing, shifting and weighting of the subsidy towards more outputs and realignment of fields to enable critical infrastructure developments such as digitisation, roads and water among others. Ends