10 Mar 2014

Residents of Komana and Nxaraga in the North West District have been urged to use their land to produce food instead of focusing on livestock only.

The Assistant Minister of Agriculture, Mr Oreeditse Molebatsi, said he appreciated that traditionally, Ngamiland communities depended mostly on livestock rearing, supplemented by hunting and arable farming but he emphasised the need to venture into crop production.

He said the area was good for ploughing of beans and millet. Mr Molebatsi said government decided to encourage people to plant crops suitable for their land to produce high yields.

He said livestock farming brought economic devastation to the district because of the prolonged absence of beef market, which occurred because of animal diseases. It is, therefore, important to shift the focus to crop farming.

He advised the residents to exploit the Integrated Support Programme for Arable Agricultural Development (ISPAAD) whose objectives were to increase grain production, promote food security at households and national levels, commercialise agriculture through mechanisation and facilitate access to farm inputs and credit.

He said ISPAAD has had positive results in other parts of Botswana. He added that if done well, one hectare of millet would produce 50 bags, meaning that five hectares would give the farmer 250 bags.

One hectare of beans produces 20 bags. The government buys one bag of beans with P700. At present, the government buys beans from Australia to supply schools.

Therefore, he said, the national requirement of beans represents an opportunity to Batswana to grow them and earn a living out of it.Furthermore, he said, the government increased the price it pays to tractor owns under ISPAAD from P400 to P800.

However, the residents, among them Ms Gaokgakala Tlou of Komana complained that elephants always destroyed their crops. As a result, crop farming in the district was more frustrating than livestock rearing. 

Mr Ikanyeng Pelonomi said the government should control the movement of elephants or there would be no need to plough. Assistant Minister Molebatsi told the residents that the chilli pepper method was recommended to use against elephants. ENDS