30 Jun 2022

Ngamiland farmers will no longer incur costs of transporting livestock from quarantines for slaughter as expenses will be taken care of by the Botswana Meat Commission, Maun branch.

Assistant Minister of Agriculture, Mr Molebatsi Molebatsi told farmers’ associations during an engagement meeting in Maun on Tuesday that government had decided to share costs with farmers who would be required to pay only when transporting livestock to quarantines.  

He said the decision was in response to farmers’ outcry that transporters were making a kill at their expense. 

It was also reported that farmers preferred to use the middle man instead of bringing their animals to the quarantine as they believed that caring for animals was a challenge.

Mr Molebatsi believed that the move would motivate farmers to bring more animals to the quarantines and save themselves from economic ruin.  

Although he informed the gathering that the ministry could not address all their challenges at once, they had agreed to prioritise them according to inflation points.

The gathering was also apprised about the recent rationalisation of the ministries and that Ministry of Agriculture would now focus on crop and animal production with a mandate to ensure food security in the country.

To achieve that, Mr Molebatsi said they realised the need to re-align some functions because the ministry could not achieve anything with the current state of affairs. 

“As the ministry leadership, we had to introspect and see what needed to be stopped, what needed to be improved to ensure the effectiveness of the ministry as well as to make hard choices in order to pick up Botswana,” he added.

Mr Molebatsi said they had merged all research units as there was a lot of duplication of functions. 

The ministry, he said, had also corrected the mistake of promoting high breed seeds over indeginous ones.

The ban on imports of some vegetables, he said, had also worked wonders for the country as horticulture farmers have been motivated to ensure continuous and adequate supply of vegetables to meet national demand.

The assistant minister also shared other priority areas such as assisting farmers with reproductive technologies and distribution of semen across the country. 

He expressed concern that the cattle population has declined and noted that efforts were underway to revamp non-functioning Artificial Insemination centres across the country so that farmers could access services closer.

Farmers’ associations were also commended for working as units to easily access services as well as benefit from government programmes.

When sharing their challenges earlier, Mr Moalosi Sebati from Hainaveld Farmers Association called on government to take care of buffalo fences, noting that their current status was worrisome.

Hainaveld farmers, he said, were determined to take commercial farming to greater heights, but were frustrated by the fence, which he said was currently down and leading to the incursion of both wild animals and cattle into prohibited areas. 

Mr Sebati, therefore, called for electrification of the fence.

He also called for an establishment of a leather plant in the district, noting that they produced a lot of hides, but it went to waste. 

The plant, he said, could also help to create employment opportunities for the locals. 

Maun East area Member of Parliament, Mr Goretetse Kekgonegile appreciated the assistant minister for engaging farmers, noting that traditionally, the Ngamiland community depended on agriculture for survival. 

The agriculture sector, he said, used to contribute meaningfully to the Gross Domestic Product, but currently it was contributing less than five per cent, hence the need to take the sector seriously. Ends