01 Nov 2021

The Ministry of Agricultural Development and Food Security is planning to embark on farm visits during the second week of November to educate farmers on the importance of ear-tagging.

Responding to a question at Ntlo Ya Dikgosi recently, local government and rural development assistant minster, Mr Mabuse Pule explained that it had not been possible to carry out on farm or on the field training of farmers due to COVID-19 restrictions.

“But we have been carrying out radio and online education to farmers about the importance of tagging their animals. We have also printed brochures for distribution across the country for communication with farmers,” Mr Pule said.

He indicated that the ministry was aware that cattle in the North East District were not tagged to the desired levels. 

“The ministry has two Livestock Advisory Centres (LACs) in Francistown and Masunga with point of sales for ear tag distribution and processing of brand certificates for farmers in the North East District, specifically Masunga as a central administrative centre,” he added.

On the other hand, he said the ministry was in the process of procuring additional keeper identity printing machines for stations where there were no machines.  

“The North East District is one of those scheduled for allocation of Keeper ID printing machines in the next financial year, specifically Masunga as it is centrally located,” he said.

Mr Pule was responding to questions on behalf of Minister of Agricultural Development and Food Security, Mr Karabo Gare. Kgosi Sibangani Mosojane of North East had asked if the minister was aware that North East District did not have a LAC to assist farmers.

He also wanted to know if there were plans to establish LAC in the North East District, to allow farmers to get simple things like keeper cards as they had to travel to Francistown at their expenses and sometimes failed to get those supplies because the office grappled with frequent network connectivity issues. 

He also argued that the district had large numbers of cattle which were not tagged due to lack of education campaigns. BOPA