20 Nov 2022

In view of the general decline in cereal and food production, investment in farming implements should be scaled up to improve agricultural production in the country, Mahalapye West MP  Mr David Tshere has said.

In his response to the State-of- the-Nation Address on Thursday, MP Tshere said investing in agricultural programmes through incentives and assisting farmers to have their products reach the market could enhance the use of the farmland.

“There is need to encourage commercial and subsistence farmers through deliberate policies,” he said.

He said even though the initiative to encourage Batswana to venture into agro-tourism was a noble gesture, his fear was that the move could impact on the country’s capacity to take advantage of fertile soils to produce food.

He described the idea of a citrus project in Selebi Phikwe as ‘genius’ but stated that the value chain development should be harnessed through manufacturing of fruit juice, soft drinks, vitamin supplements and other downstream industries.

He said the speedy construction of Mmamabula-Lephalale rail route and an improvement of the national rail network would improve access to the coal market.

Mr Tshere also called for the beneficiation of iron ore and other mineral resources in order to generate industries such as steel products.

The legislator, who is also the chairperson of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and HIV, praised government for its effort in seeing Botswana through the COVID-19 pandemic though he cautioned that the virus could resurface.

He expressed concern about shortage of live-saving medication in government hospitals and clinics, calling for serious intervention by the Ministry of Health and the reformation of the Central Medical Stores to be able to procure and distribute medicinal drugs better.

Mr Tshere said the state of roads in Mahalapye was a concern while the stormwater drainage system was also in need of an upgrade.

He also revealed that in his recent visit to 10 public primary schools in Mahalapye, he discovered that the supply of textbooks and food for the school feeding programme had been irregular, which made learning difficult.

Mr Tshere said recommendations from the Constitutional Review process should be shortlisted to five major points and put to a referendum, where the majority of citizens could vote to decide on whether the reforms should be passed to ensure a majority buy-in on any changes. ENDS