06 Oct 2025

Deputy Chief of Ga-Mmangwato, Kgosi Seretse Peter Khama had commissioned the 2025/26 ploughing season at Serowe main Kgotla on Sunday.

Officially launching  the ploughing season commonly known as “Letsema” in Setswana, Kgosi Seretse implored Ba-Gammangwato to prioritise farming over other activities to ensure food security and self-sufficiency in the country.

Also, he encouraged the community to prepare for the season well in advance, catch the first and early rains and plough at the right time for optimum output.

Furthermore, he implored Batswana to service tractors, prepare draught power and other farming implements well on time as “the earliest bird catches the fattest worm.”

Kgosi Seretse remained optimistic that there would be heavy downpours to enable Batswana to plough more hectares that would lead to a bumper harvest and wished Ba-Gammangwato a fruitful season.

He expressed optimism that God as the rainmaker would provide abundant rain, to enable farmers to contribute significantly to the national grain and food production.

Kgosi Seretse said they were pondering to resuscitate chieftainship ploughing fields dubbed ‘Masota’ which were in the past used to plough for morafe and store the grains in storage facilities or silos to be used when the need arise.

He said such ploughing fields were idling and therefore utilising them would mean adding an impetus into revitalising the country’s economy that was somewhat sluggish.

In an interview following the commissioning of Letsema, MP for Serowe West, Mr Onalepelo Kedikilwe encouraged fellow citizens to take advantage of the 2025/26 ploughing and cropping season to boost food security in the country and reduce the hefty import bill.

Mr Kedikilwe said in recent years, Botswana experienced poor rains but was optimistic that the coming ploughing season would receive plenty of rain.

He said most farmers in the country were lagging behind in adoption of new technologies, adding these issues resulted in low productivity and profitability thus hindering progress in the agricultural sector.

He said back then, people were using draught power for ploughing which proved to be effective, but nowadays tractors were deployed for ploughing and in some instances people waited for tractors for prolonged times impacting on the ability to till the land at the correct time.

Mr Kedikilwe said it was vital to conduct soil testing as it determined nutrient levels, allowing farmers to add the correct amount of fertilizers which increased yields, improved plant health and resistance to diseases and parasites.

He concurred with Kgosi Seretse that using the appropriate technology would lead to increased productivity and economic viability as well as reducing unnecessary spending habits for farmers.

Ms Mmandu Pitlagano of Mogatsapoo lands in Serowe said she was committed to boosting food security in the country but some bottlenecks within the sector prevented her mission.

She said one of the challenges was that her ploughing field was in an area where soil composition was mostly black cotton soil which was slushy inaccessible during torrential rains due to water logging making ploughing impossible. ENDS