21 Oct 2024

Ngamiland farmers owed by Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) have been assured that their payments will be paid without fail by Friday. 

Addressing a kgotla meeting in Maun recently, Minister of Entrepreneurship, Mr Karabo Gare said BMC had secured funding to settle all outstanding amounts and pleaded with the affected farmers to ensure their accounting details were available for payment.

He said government was well aware of BMC’s shortcomings regarding payments to farmers.

He said efforts were being made to resolve payment delays and problems bedeviling the Maun abattoir.

As such, Mr Gare apologised to the farming community assuring them that payment turnaround times would improve at the BMC Maun abattoir going forward.

“I know you are owed, some of you for months, regarding animals which were slaughtered at our Maun abattoir and I am here to provide assurance that we will do our best to ensure that bottlenecks, which we have experienced with the sale of meat products derived from cattle slaughtered in Maun, are overcome.

In part, these are the ones that have contributed to delays considering that we have to sell the meat first, in order to raise revenue that can, in turn, be used to pay you,” he added.

Also, the minister shared interventions to improve commercial value and payment turnaround times, which aligned with those who sold cattle to the BMC noting that the ministry continued to develop long-term strategic plans.

He cited the Maja-A-Ikgorosa cattle feeding scheme, which was recently launched in Kang, saying the initiative sought to empower base producers. 

“The scheme’s main objective is to migrate non-European Union (EU) eligible cattle (often referred to as other markets) to attain EU eligibility and enable more farmers to sell their cattle directly to lucrative markets such as EU, for enhanced price discovery.”

The essence of Maja-A-Ikgorosa, Mr Gare said was designed with the primary purpose of delivering better or enhanced value to the primary or base producer saying the scheme had to account for two critical market-access bottlenecks, which were prevalent in the green zones.

He mentioned the exploitative and unfairly prejudicial behaviours of a significant number of private intermediaries, when transacting with base or primary producers, and lack of pre-requisite resources that would enable base or primary producers to feed their weaners for EU eligibility.

Furthermore, he pointed out that the aim of the scheme was not to stifle market vagaries but to enhance equity and promote balanced bargaining power in the livestock production and trading business more so, when the value chain passed through or gains as a result of contributions made by the publicly owned cooperative called the BMC.

“Be assured that as a ministry and through BMC, we remain committed to taking the Maja-A-Ikgorosa programme to areas such as Ngamiland, Boteti and Okavango and ensure the scheme is accessed by everyone. 

We must, however, first achieve access for non-EU cattle and meet stipulated compliance requirements that would get us better or higher prices over time and on a structured and sustainable basis,” Mr Gare said.

Residents were also informed that the Ministry of Agriculture remained committed to establishing Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) free zones in the Ngamiland region.

Mr Gare said FMD control programme was recently endorsed by the World Organisation for Animal Health signaling progress.

Mr Gare challenged residents to work with the ministry to ensure the country attained a globally accepted veterinary disease-free status, in relation to Ngamiland region.

“We, however, have to be truthful and realistic that the whole Ngamiland region is unlikely to be turned into a green zone but let us work towards maximizing the amount of land that can rear livestock, which can access the EU and other premium-price markets.”

“Be assured that my ministry will continue consulting and collaborating with other ministries regarding how together with our farmers and communities, can attain market access for disease endemic zones so as to establish a strong business case for Maja-A-Ikgorosa to be replicated immediately in these non-EU zones,” added Mr Gare. ENDs