08 Oct 2023

Horticulture farmers in Tonota have been urged to embrace the value chain development model in their businesses.

When addressing Tonota Horticultural Farmers recently the Minister of Agriculture, Mr Fidelis Molao said value chain development should be practised in all sectors including horticulture to ensure that unique output was sold.

Mr Molao said farmers should ensure that what they produce was unique from what is available in the market by adding more value to their output.

He said associations should control what was grown to avoid overproduction and flooding the market.

He advised associations not to just exist in name, but that they should coordinate farming in their areas.

He said farmers should plant at different times so that they sell at different times as this would enable them to determine the selling price.

Currently buyers determine the buying price because they have many options to choose from, leading to some produce being bought for less than its true value.

Mr Molao underscored the need to establish collection points for horticulture farmers so that buyers could collect goods at the distribution centres.

As a way of addressing the issue, the Ministry of Entrepreneurship will start the construction of distribution centres for farmers’ produce across the country.

He also said  that Temo Letlotlo programme which was about to start would address most of the farmers’ concerns as it offered services such as infrastructure development and insurance.

Tonota Horticultural Farmers Association’s Secretary, Ms Topo Moatswi, said there was need to develop culverts along Tonota-Gulushabe gravel road for the safe transportation of farm produce.

Ms Moatswi said there was need to address the Shashe River basin sand harvesting that has led degradation of the river basin and low water levels, which negatively impacted livelihoods and irrigation downstream.

She said issuing of new land certificates should be fasttracked to enable farmers to use their farms as security to get financial assistance.

Mr Mbulawa Mbulawa, a farmer, suggested that a law be enacted to support and protect horticultural projects.

He said this would help control how the horticulture industry is run.

He said government did not support horticulture in the same manner that it supported other farming industries as horticulture farmers were not assisted in cases of natural disasters. ENDS