16 Jan 2025

Etsha 6 farmers at Wabi ploughing fields have suffered a catastrophe as their crops and vegetables have submerged under water due to recent heavy rains experienced across the country.

In an interview on Wednesday, one of Wabi ploughing fields farmers, 65-year-old Mr Maano Maano said he planted about 200 by 100 metres of land with watermelon, sweet potato, maize and the traditional vegetable motete as well as tomatoes.

Mr Maano said the heavy rains that were experienced early January led to the flooding of his field since the rain was continuous.

He said his crops especially watermelon and vegetables were about to be ripe when the disaster hit.

“We have experienced rains before but are normally able to harvest our produce despite the rains,” he said.

Another farmer, 64-year-old Mr Omwaadhi Mothoiwa who ploughs on a large scale, is one of the most affected.

Mr Mothoiwa said he normally planted earlier since he had a borehole and pumps that he used to water his crops such as variety of watermelons, beans, lentils and vegetables hence he was able to harvest some of his produce before the disaster happened.

“I was able to supply eight tonnes of watermelon to Fours in Shakawe, two tonnes of maize to my community, and sold two tonnes of sweet reed to Shakawe and Maun and was in the process to supply another supermarket before the heavy rains flooded my farm,” he said.

Mr Mothoiwa said only pumpkins were salvaged while it was impossible to harvest beans and lentils from the flooded field.

Another Wabi farmer who specialises in horticulture, 59-year-old Mr Dikgalagadi Lopang, said he specialises mainly in vegetables such as rape, cabbages and green pepper.

Mr Lopang said he was about to transplant his tomatoes when the field became flooded and that he was anticipating the vegetables to be ripe by the time schools opened, which would allow him to sell.

Another Wabi horticulture farmer, 45-year-old Mr Kebontshitswe Masasa, said he had planted about half a hectare of his farm with tomatoes, green pepper, cabbage and rape. Mr Masasa said he was hopeful to harvest as school opened but failed as the field was flooded.

In an interview, Etsha 6 Principal Technical officer from the Department of Crops Production, Ms Leah Semahedi said farmers had suffered a great loss due to floods since they planted large scales of fields annually and plant early as Molapo (river) farmers so as to be able to penetrate the markets earlier and benefit financially.

She said about 540 hectares was damaged by floods while six horticulture farmers who had planted about 2.07 hectares alss lost about 42 tonnes of producec expected.

Ms Semahedi said about 175 farmers had planted crops and that 122 farms had been assessed, which equated to 102 farmers affected. She said the number of affcted farmers may increase as assessment was still ongoing.

Ms Semahedi said only two farmers including Mr Mothoiwa were able to sell some produce before the floods.

She said Mr Mothoiwa who sold a total of 12 tonnes of his produce was able to get about P41 000 although he had anticipated a total sale of about P78 000 if the rest of his crops were not affected.

Ms Semahedi, however, said since farms at Wabi fields did not have land certificates, the farmers were therefore not eligible for compensation or other government programmes such as provision of seeds, but were only given expert advice by the Crop Production department on when and how to plough and encouraged to sell earlier to benefit from their produce. ENDS