07 Feb 2024

Minister Molao has acknowledged the slow start of the ploughing season, which he attributed to late rains as well as the launch of the Temo Letlotlo programme. 

Updating Parliament on  Temo Letlotlo in Parliament on Tuesday, Minister of Agriculture Mr Molao said  the programme encountered teething challenges at the inauguration stage.

Concerning the  hectares  ploughed so far, Minister  Molao said over 28 000 hectares have been ploughed or planted by about 5 000 farmers under the Temo Letlotlo programme, Minister of Agriculture, Mr Fidelis Molao has said.

Minister Molao said close to 27 000 hectares were row planted while about 1 000 were broadcasted, adding that the figures were lower compared to the previous two seasons.

“In 2021/22, an area of 27 039 hectares was planted by 5 845 farmers while 29  579 hectares were planted by 6 765 in  2022/2023 ,” he said.

He said the ploughing season had been extended to February 14, 2024 for areas south of Dibete and February  27, for areas north  of Dibete.He said while the 2023/2024 season had been forecasted to be a drought year, the 2022/2023 season was declared a severe drought year. 

According to Mr Molao 105  000 farmers had registered for the Crop  Management System (CMS) otherwise referred to as Temo CMS  under the  Temo Letlotlo programme. He said only 83 000 of the registered farmers had verified fields and undertook grain production while 22 000 had no farms.

He said the registration of tractor owners and seed suppliers was ongoing and that 188 outlets in the business of selling seeds had been registered across the country. Mr Molao noted that over 2 300 tractor owners had been registered while about 1 130 other owners were being processed.

Minister Molao also acknowledged encountering challenges in rolling out the  Temo Letlotlo programme. 

He said it included the slow uptake of fertilizers in Mahalapye, Palapye and Serowe districts as farmers were sceptical of using fertilizers.  

He said farmers in Chobe and Okavango used their own resources to secure  draught power services since the programme inputs were not yet accessible  as the programme was not launched.  

To address some of the challenges, Mr Molao said they held 135 stakeholder  engagement meetings across the country since the launch of the programme to ensure its alignment to all value chain players.  

He said in collaboration with Botswana International University of Science and Technology (BUIST) and the National  Development Bank (NDB) they held 23 workshops in different districts in order to onboard tractor owners into the Temo CMS.

The minister also said critical to the implementation of the programme was  the capacity of extension services in terms of human resource and  transportation requirements. 

He noted that his ministry had 257 extension  officers and that each officer was attending to at least 500 farmers. 

He said they planned to employ more extension officers on short-term contracts  to complement the existing numbers and to facilitate more farmers this  seasons. Ends