12 Jan 2025

Farmers in Kanye District have been praised for utilising Temo Letlotlo to acquire farm implements and machinery.

Speaking in an interview with BOPA recently, Principal Agricultural Scientific Officer Ms Kelebonye Bareeleng explained that the scheme offered farmers an opportunity to acquire farm implements and machinery at 50 per cent adding this would enable farmers to take advantage of the current season to plough without queuing for insufficient tractors.

She said her office had registered 60 tractors, 58 planters and 140 tillage implements which were inclusive of harrows, discs and many more.

However, she said although mechanised farming was commonly adopted in crop farming for various reasons and factors such as time, labour and effectiveness, some residents within her district did not have the privilege of ploughing with tractors.

Ms Bareeleng said environment factors such as rocks also denied farmers to use tractors. She said people in Moshana were ploughing in rocky areas hence had to maximise draught power.

Mr Lucky Keatlholetswe, an Agricultural Extension officer in Moshana said in the past ploughing season he had 21 famers registered in Computer Management System (CMS) to use draught power while only 39 had registered to use tractor implements and they accounted for 201 hectares in Moshana.

He said those who used draught power accounted for about 57 hectares of ploughed land and said he expected the numbers of those using draught power to increase in the current ploughing season.

However, he said it was highly likely some used draught power and could not register in the CMS and therefore they cannot be accounted for.

Mr Keatlholetswe highlighted that for subsistence famers,  government’s support in Temo Letlotlo allowed them 4 hectare of ploughing land per person. However, he said the provision did not limit farmers to 4 hectare as they could exceed provided they pay for themselves.

One of the famers using draught power, a widow who has been ploughing more than six hectare, Ms Bushy Molefe, attested that, draught power has as much potential yield as tractor ploughing.

“Daily I plough two hectares of land with my six donkey span, one hector from 5 am to 11 am and allow them rest and further continues in the afternoon about 3 pm to 6pm,” she said.

Another farmer, Mr Tebo Soti, said he started farming in 2009, when he hired donkey ploughing services but was later able to buy his own donkeys and started to plough for other farmers.

“I was advised to use the money I got paid for providing ploughing service to buy myself implements to use with my donkeys. That is how I managed to end up as a draught power service provider, first for my household and others,” he said.

He said following his services, he received P4000 per hectare from the government but said he faced challenges such as stock theft, missing animals, their death, drought conditions and diseases and appealed to the government to assist them with draught power acquisition. ENDS