26 Apr 2022

Beneficiaries of government programmes have been challenged to aim toward feeding the nation with the ultimate goal of exporting their produce.  
  The beneficiaries have also been called  to desist from being comfortable in being subsistence farmers and grow their farming into viable commercial enterprises.
This was said by the chairman of the parliamentary portfolio committee on local governance and social welfare, Mr Sam Brooks, Monday at a handing over of a pure meat master ram to Ms Ditshego Obonye of Mamanaka cattle post.
Mr Brooks challenged Ms Obonye and other beneficiaries to not only feed the nation but also contribute to the small stock value chain.
He said the donation of the ram was born from their traversing the nation assessing the level  and performance of some programmes.
As a result, the committee helped some success stories to elevate their farming endeavours whilst simultaneously stoking life out of struggling and failed projects.
Mr Brooks who is also a Member of Parliament for Kgalagadi South found that Nyeletso Lehuma programme had the capacity to produce quite a sizeable number of successful farmers when taken seriously like in the case of Ms Obonye who committed to staying at the cattle post  to tender  to her small stock.
Ms Obonye, a beneficiary of Nyeletso Lehuma was supplied with 11 goats in 2014. She currently has 47 goats and 13 sheep which she bought from the proceeds of goats sales.
The 52-year-old Ms Obonye said her story stemmed from passion and love for small stock farming.
“Because of the love and passion for smallstock rearing I decided to relocate to the cattle post-full-time so I can tend to my animals,” she said.
For his part, Mr Taolo Lucas, the area MP who is also a member of the parliamentary portfolio committee said the committee had received invaluable advice from farmers on how best farming could be improved.
He said there should be a deliberate plan to reach a wider populace in as farming programmes were concerned. He said such beneficiaries should be selected on merit.
“The plan should also be to the effect that it involves as many beneficiaries so that the level of small stock production in the country could improve drastically,” Mr Lucas said. ENDS