06 Feb 2024

A vegetable farmer in Tuli Block area, Mr Jan-Pirre Roos, has received accolades for developing a fruits and vegetable storage facility on his farm.

The commendation came from Acting Minister of Trade and Industry, Ms Beauty Manake, during a visit to JP Roos vegetable farm, to appreciate developments and assess the vegetable project in line with the vegetable import ban.

Ms Manake, also visited Lucerne Fields, managed by Mr Jan Stinglingh and his wife, Manjo, who cultivate beetroots and carrots.

She said the facility would store a variety of vegetables and fruits and, accommodate 7 000 tonnes, an amount the country could consume in a month or two.

Ms Manake said the good news was that the farmer would not only store his produce but would also extend the facility to other farmers, at a fee.

Such, she said, was pleasing as it would reduce post-harvest losses.

Africa reportedly losses more than 43 per cent of harvest due to lack of food storage facilities.

Ms Manake stated that the space was built after government introduced the vegetable import ban and had that not happened, Mr Roos would probably not have seen the importance of the storage and hoped that other farmers would learn from him.

A beneficiary of Young Farmers Fund, Mr Roos started as a young farmer and was now a commercial farmer.

Mr Roos, who is also chairperson of Tuli Block Farmers’ Association, said farmers in the Tuli Block took government’s initiative to ban the importation of vegetables seriously and did what was expected of them.

He said COVID- 19 was a lesson to many countries, to stop relying on others for food and grow their own hence government’s decision to get farmers to contribute in getting Botswana food secure.

Mr Roos said they appreciated the visits to Tuli Block farmers saying the assistant minister of local government recently paid them a visit and promised to assist them.

He said through concerted efforts, it was possible to get Botswana where it needed to be, an export nation of common produce as butternuts, onion, carrots and beetroots.

Mr Roos said he was happy that the working relationship between commercial farmers and government was much more open, trusting and relaxed.

The fruits and vegetable storage facility will give farmers much more flexibility because now they can harvest and store vegetables for months, Mr Roos said and added that it would also help keep prices stable.

For his part, Mr Stinglingh said that the border closure pushed them even further to try and produce beetroots and carrots every day of the month.

He said at first, they were not happy but the move turned out to be the best thing that happened to farmers in Botswana.

Mr Stinglingh said they were happy with what they had achieved and also for the future because the vegetable import ban would allow them to export their products. Ends