12 Oct 2022

It is one thing to have a small backyard garden but one with potato sacks. You don’t see that every day. Ms Sakhenene Kaizer has filled her yard with over 80 bags of potato plants that she started as an experiment but now it has become a very important part of her life.

After seeing one of her friends casually keeping potato sacks in her yard, Jackalas 1 native took it upon herself to commercialise the skill. After over a year of practice, she said she no longer has an interest in being an employee because she has found her craze.

Proving to have ample knowledge and information about this particular vegetable, she pointed out that the best part of building her empire is how easy it is.

Realising how much potential she stands to gain from her potatoes she regrets not having started earlier because she would be far by now.

Farming is not a new thing to her, but she admits it has always been her belief that potatoes can only be procured from South Africa.

“I thought that they couldn’t grow in Botswana, and I believed if you wanted to try growing potatoes, one needed chunks of land to do so,” she said.

Her perception stemmed from the fact that it was not common to find anyone growing potatoes locally.

 It is her wish that more light could be shed on potato production for Batswana to venture into such a lucrative sector; a thing she said would help reduce the country’s import bill.

Explaining the process of growing potatoes, Ms Kaizer relays she never spends money on buying seeds and fertilizers in this particular undertaking.

“I take a normal potato and put it in a sack then cover it with any type of soil, water it consistently until it produces leaves and starts flowering,” she said.

Upon flowering which is usually after three months, she says her potatoes are ready to harvest. She usually cuts off the flowers to speed up the production of potatoes.

To scale up production, Ms Kaizer is mulling moving into a more spacious production area where she will need extra hands.

She is optimistic that her produce will reach the rest of the country sooner than later.

Besides potatoes, the hard-working 43-year-old grows tomatoes, onions and other vegetables in her backyard. BOPA