Farmers ignore advice on crop farming

Maranyane Ngwanaamotho | Tuesday November 18, 2014 16:31

 

Farmers have been asked to choose sorghum over maize

ISPAAD coordinator, Lepodisi Telekelo told Mmegi yesterday that in the current ploughing season, they have dispatched more maize seeds, though farmers are informed that sorghum is more drought tolerant.

He said that so far, they had dispatched 450.4 tons of maize and only 65.3 tons of sorghum seeds to districts for distribution. A total of 83 tons of cowpeas and 9 tons of millet seeds have also been dispatched.  

Telekelo said the seeds have been certified to be of good quality by the producers. “They are tested for moisture content, purity and germination percentage,” he explained.

So far, the ministry has spent P29.5 million procuring 940 tons of seeds. Telekelo said that the ministry is continuing to issue authorisation letters for farmers to obtain subsidised seeds from suppliers.  He stated that seed distribution has been slow countrywide due to a low response by farmers but demand had risen since the onset of recent rains. Telekelo said the distribution of seeds in the southern region would stop by end of January next year. In the northern part of the country, the deadline is mid February.