02 Aug 2022

 The recently established National Agricultural Research and Development Institute (NARDI) has been described as a ray of hope for unlocking the agricultural sector’s potential.

A merger of Department of Agriculture Research, Botswana Nation Veterinary Laboratory and National Food Technology Research Centre (NFTRC) operations, NARDI’s is aimed at  ramping up food production in Botswana by enhancing the value chain.

This is according to NARDI’s director of field crops and horticulture Dr Odireleng Molosiwa who stated in an interview that the organisation sought to  ensure completion of the value chain noting that there was more revenue towards the end.

Giving examples, he said it would be more profitable to produce tomato sauce than selling tomatoes while processing maize would be more profitable than selling a bag of the produce.

“Morama is able to produce oil, but Morama is still being harvested from the wild. For the value chain to be complete, Morama must be brought to agricultural production in the field,” Dr Molosiwa said.

Stressing that within value chain there was value addition and quality improvement, Dr Molosiwa also said processing reduced post-harvest losses.

He said exploiting value chain would not only create job opportunities but would ensure that they were retained locally.

Dr Molosiwa said production of animal feeds, particularly for small stock, was needed and could be produced by using different local materials.

 The goal was to establish the effect of feed on small stock carcass quality, he said adding: “We are exploring the use of local materials for instance crop residues and wild plant species and we will also characterize meat after feeding them with different feeds.”

Dr  Molosiwa said NARDI would ensure that technology was not kept on shelves but rather reached Batswana.

‘’We do not only promote developed technology but we also promote those technologies that are adopted which could be beneficial to Botswana,’’ he stated.

On seed challenges, he said the organisation had started production of seeds with Irish potato seed being the current project.

Another ongoing project, he said, was the revenue diversification pathway through bio-based sustainable agricultural innovations.

Dr Molosiwa said the research explored the use of bio char as fertilizer and other bio materials which was funded by the EU to the tune of P13 million.ENDS