30 Aug 2021

 The Ministry of Agricultural Development and Food Security is working with Debswana to develop Setata Ranch which will serve as a small stock hub just like Lubo small stock farm in Kgalagadi. 

Boteti Sub-council chairperson Mr Molemi Galeragwe told councillors in Letlhakane recently that the project was on track with grading of access roads done while firebreaks and maintenance of fence was being implemented. 

He said it was worth noting that investment opportunities existed for a mixed species abattoir in Boteti. 

Mr Galeragwe said Setata Ranch would be of great use to Boteti farmers especially that they had also benefitted from President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi’s small stock initiative, which aimed to improve the quality and quantity of small stock production in the country. He also implored councillors to encourage the local community to form and operate business cooperatives, associations or clusters and conservation trusts.

He said by so doing, they would be exploiting dormant resources such as open spaces and pockets of land for commercialisation of conservatory community parks to achieve sustainable economic development. 

Mr Galeragwe also said more benefits could be realised by adopting modern technologies and making use of allocated but idle agricultural land to contribute to national food security. 

Moreover, he indicated that submission of new Livestock Management Infrastructure Development (LIMID) applications had been suspended to tackle the backlog, which stands at 3457 and dates back to January 2017. 

On development issues, he said Boteti Sub-District Council had awarded 29 planned tenders for 2021/22 financial year, and that they all were being executed as per the plan. 

Mr Galeragwe said 15 out of 29 tenders were reserved for bidders located within Boteti Sub-district, whereas eight tenders were open to bidders within Botswana. He noted that five tenders were reserved for Selebi Phikwe Economic Diversification Unit region as per Presidential Directive CAB 2(A) of 2017 with two tenders restricted to local companies. 

“The Sub-district cumulatively expensed a total of P7.2 million on tenders awarded to locals compared to 6.5 million Pula spent on citizen owned companies,” he said. 

The Sub-council chairperson further noted that the Youth Development Fund had been allocated P3.2 million for the year 2021/2022 and priority would be given to projects in manufacturing, agriculture, technology, digitisation and innovation initiatives, agro-tourism and eco-tourism. 

Mr Galeragwe said the programme was overshadowed by the hefty outstanding balance close to P21 million with arrears of about P12.8 million.

 “Although the grace period for 373 businesses had elapsed, defaulters were not committed to paying their loan components despite countless compelling efforts by the facilitating department,” he said. 

On national service or volunteer programme, he told councillors that a total of 549 participants had been engaged across the Sub-district to promote youth participation in the economy and impartation of job skills. 

He noted sports development and creative industry, had been disrupted by the pandemic leading to substantial loss of income. Mr Galeragwe stated that Boteti benefitted from the first phase of cross-country virtual artist recordings by the youth ministry to create television content where local artists earned a total of P30 000. ends