11 Jul 2022

Horticulture farmers in the Okavango area have been advised to take advantage of import ban on some vegetables.

The call was made by Shakawe agricultural demonstrator, Mr Joel Keromang on July 7 at a consultative meeting with Shakawe farmers.

He observed that farmers in the area planted fewer and similar vegetables at a given time, which saturated the local market. 

Farmers, he said, should focus on markets beyond Okavango area.

“Okavango area is rich in natural resources such as fertile soil and abundant water, therefore you should feed Okavango and the rest of the country,” he said, adding that crops such as cabbage, tomatoes, onion and butternut had proven to do well in the area.

He, therefore, stressed the need for farmers to expand their production base by planning together to ensure that they varied their yield. 

For their comments, some farmers complained that the local market was limited since only one retailer bought from them while some supermarkets sourced vegetables from Gaborone.

From Shakawe, Mr Benny Morundu said one of their challenge was that some farmers, especially large scale farmers in the area, were reluctant to join the horticulture farmers association.

He said if farmers could work together, they could share experiences therefore overcome some of the challenges.

“[Again], if supermarkets bought from farmers in our area it would motivate farmers to produce more,” he said. 

Mr Morundu said sometimes farmers suffered losses when they failed to sell their produce until they go bad.

Another farmer from Samochima Mr Samson Keheletswe said the main challenge was failure to do cropping plan, which would allow farmers to decide together on the types of crops to produce rotationally to meet the market demands. 

From Mohembo, Ms Kemo Begane urged fellow farmers to treat farming as a business in order to gain satisfying rewards. 

To cut losses, she said farmers should consider processing their perishable.  

For her part, Okavango Sub-district crop production officer, Ms Elizabeth Keabetswe said the consultative forum was meant to appreciate farmers’ challenges. End