13 Oct 2013

President Lt Gen. Seretse Khama Ian Khama has expressed concern over the country’s reliance on food commodities from outside, despite government efforts to enable farmers to feed the nation.

Addressing farmers at Kanngwe in Southern District on October 11, President Khama said government had come up with initiatives such as ISPAAD, LIMID, CEDA Young Farmers Fund and the Youth Development Fund among others, with the view to enhance food production and security in the country.

“We have farmers and land thus we should be striving to be self sufficient in food as a country instead of relying on other nations for most of the food we have,” he said.

The President highlighted that government spent about P2 billion on the ISPAAD programme in a financial year. In the same breath, President Khama expressed delight that Batswana were still attached to agriculture and assured them of government’s unwavering support.

Kanngwe farmers were commended for having used the Ipelegeng programme to do the cluster fencing project in their area and were urged to do likewise with farm roads.

The President said government would have long developed rural roads infrastructure, electricity and telecommunication networks nationwide to enable food producers to keep up with farm technologies, if it were not for the current economic climate, but advised them not to despair.

He also acknowledged that farm debushing came at a cost to farmers but explained that government would not be able to bear the expenses for now as a result of financial constraints.

To this end, authorities in the Ministry of Agriculture were urged to liaise with their counterparts in the  Ministry of Transport  and Communications to ensure that farm roads were maintained during farming seasons as an enabler for food producers.

The President also urged Kanngwe farmers to pray for rain as the impending drought situation threatened to rob most Batswana of a means of living. On other issues, President Khama promised feedback on what farmers termed low prices from Botswana Agricultural Marketing Board (BAMB), the agricultural credit guarantee scheme, among others, in the next three weeks through Minister Christian De Graaff.

Kgosikgolo Malope II of Bangwaketse had in his welcome remarks asked government to develop farm roads to link food producers with farm technology suppliers, markets and the outside world.

He also applauded government for having enabled Kanngwe farmers to fence their land through cluster fencing, which he described as a leap towards the envisioned food security.

A commercial farmer, Mr Daniel Mathiba of Mmathethe had complained of low BAMB prices. He alleged that the organisation made high profits trading farm produce acquired from farmers for next to nothing.

Mr Mathiba noted that grade two maize was a deception to exploit unsuspecting farmers, arguing that it was only applied when buying from farmers but never availed to farmers when they were buying from the organisation. Ends