17 Dec 2020

Agriculture or farming can contribute to poverty alleviation beyond a direct effect on farmer’s incomes.

Agricultural development can stimulate economic development outside of the agricultural sector, and lead to higher job and wealth creation.

Experts say agriculture is not just a one-off injection of cash but creating long-term, sustainable change and improvement in the lives of women and their families.

A horticulture farmer, Ms Gaotshwarwe Otimile of Maun has appealed to women to venture into horticultural farming to uproot poverty amongst their families.

Noting that women were the most vulnerable and affected by poverty, she said she believed that through farming they could reduce poverty level and eventually improve their livelihoods. Horticulture, she said was a viable project which they could tap into.

She is of the view that women are capable of feeding the nation if they could exercise patience, hard work and commitment in farming projects.

Ms Otimile is a beneficiary of horticulture demonstration project implemented by Okavango River Basin Water Commission (OKACOM) in collaboration with the ministry of Agricultural Development and Food Security.

She owns a 14-hectare farm at Mawana village, some 20km from Maun along A1 road where she plants vegetables such as lettuce, sweetcorn, strawberries, cauliflower and green pepper among others.

Ms Otimile called on other women to come for benchmarking and copy climate-smart practices aimed to enhance horticultural produce.

“I avail myself to share knowledge and information I acquired from the project because I want women to start their own projects and feed the nation,” she added.

Her inspiration is to see women coming out of their comfort zones and explore their potential through available opportunities aimed to improve their livelihoods.  Ms Otimile started farming in 2017 and has been able to secure a stable market thanks to the project which taught her to look for market first before ploughing.

Currently, she supplies big wholesales such as Fours and other supermarkets in Maun.

Horticulture, she said was a profitable project if one did it right adding that the best recipe to run a successful project was availability of reliable water source, patience and commitment.

Farming in general, she said needed attention adding that if one wanted to go into farming he/she needed to consider it as a full-time job.

Ms Otimile revealed she stayed 24/7 at her farm as she needed to be hands on.

The vibrant farmer also noted that farming was a gateway to greener pastures in her life adding that through the assistance she acquired from OKACOM project she expanded the shade nets to grow more crops.

OKACOM assisted her with infrastructure and machinery such as shade nets, equipping borehole with solar panels as well as the technical know-how offered by an expert. She said the expert drilled her in production aspects such as soil sampling to guide procurement and application of correct fertilizers and pesticides administration.

Ms Otimile intends to diversify her products to boost her income. She wished the project could be extended to other farmers in the district to improve food security. ENDs