Farmers advised to venture into agro-business
Pini Bothoko | Friday May 30, 2014 16:16
The officer, Mpho Mogorosakgomo, said that more money was used by the country to import food from other countries and made a call for all farmers to utilise their fields and farms to plant and feed the nation.
Morogosakgomo said that the majority of Batswana own large farms but use only a small portion of land to plough for family consumption even though they can lease other portions to other equally passionate farmers.
“Majority of people complain of shortage of land whilst there are some of you lucky to own about 300 hectares but only use a quarter of the hectares,” she said.
“This is an issue of concern because those with passion in farming are disadvantaged by shortage of land. Through these farmers we can block import of food crops from neighbouring countries,” she said.
She added that farmers should refrain from the old system of ploughing a few crops for family consumption and consider farming for business because they can strike it rich with farming.
She said that they even have the opportunity to seek financial support from organisations like Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA) and other local banks to fund them in their businesses.
She said that huge amounts of money are used on a daily basis to import foods from neighbouring countries. She also said that if they show interest in farming for commercial purposes, the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) can help them identify the markets. She added that it is one of their mandates to see that farmers produce enough food to feed the nation.
Commenting on the potato trend in Botswana, a marketing officer with MoA, based at Tonota Sub District, Matshidiso Christmas, said that there is high demand in Botswana as it is always prepared as part of meals. She said that locally potato production in the central district is from May to July and September to December whilst national production is only once in a year from April to June.
Christmas said that national imports show that potatoes are imported throughout the year from neighbouring countries in large quantities. She related the quantities imported into Botswana for the year 2013: May it was 1,624.43 tonnes at the cost of P548,044.30 while in September 2,556.15 tonnes costing P65,217.05 and in January this year 1,621.57 tonnes at the cost of P732,702.10.
A potato farmer from Tonota, Letsididi Moreetsi said that he planted potatoes last year and harvested more than 300 bags from a quarter of the hectares he utilised. He added that he wants to carry on with planting potatoes for commercial purpose.
“I am happy to be a potato farmer. The market for potatoes is even more than what I expected because the demand is high. This year I want to plant more hectares and produce large potatoes because they are the ones that people want in the market. I sold a bag for P45,” said Moreetsi.