Low ISPAAD uptake in horticulture

Onalenna Kelebeile | Thursday March 26, 2015 17:36

Out of 153 horticultural farmers assisted countrywide, only 10 are from the area, an official from Ministry of Agriculture Onkemetse Gaebope has said.

The deputy district agriculture coordinator told the Selebi-Phikwe Enterprise Development Unit horticulture consultation meeting on Tuesday that there are only 800 horticultural farmers nationally. Out of these, 153 farmers applied for the horticultural support programme and just over 110 were approved.

Gaebope said the bulk of vegetables in Botswana are imported from South Africa costing about P200 million.

He said that last year, only 46,900 metric tonnes of vegetables were produced locally against the national demand of 90,000 metric tonnes per annum.

He called on farmers to take up the ISPAAD programme and tap into the opportunity to supply the country with vegetables. He told farmers to participate in the ISPAAD programme review in June this year.

Meanwhile, acting Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA) chief executive officer, Andrew Madeswi has said they have committed over P112 million in investments in the horticultural sub-sector.

He said 31 percent of the investment will be in Palapye and surrounding areas with Selebi-Phikwe coming second with a 15 percent share.

The investment for the Selebi-Phikwe office is P54 million for 107 projects, 76 of which are in horticulture. He said one of the biggest challenges faced in the horticultural sector is lack of water.

He said that recently, they did not get good results when they tested water samples drawn from Motloutse River.

“We have already conducted two studies that have shown that more studies need to be done,” he stated.

Madeswi stated that barriers to market entry is an issue. He stated that it is not yet time to say there is no market.

The problem is the approach to the market and how the market is regulated. “There is need to align to the market needs. There is also the challenge of high production costs and low commitment from farmers. Skilled manpower is also crucial. There is need to capacitate and upscale farm workers,” he added.

He said that they have observed that financial obligations are not met by those assisted by CEDA.

The Local Enterprise Authority (LEA) indicated that its horticulture value chain study revealed that limited input is manufactured in Botswana.

LEA discovered that there is inconsistent supply of produce and inability to meet market requirements as well as lack of diversity of vegetable production. There is inadequate use of modern production and post-harvest methods and technologies.

The workshop that was organised to exchange ideas on the establishment of the processing plant for horticultural products resolved to conduct a detailed quality study for water sources in the region.

It also resolved that the Ministries of Lands and Agriculture should work closely to establish suitable land for agriculture when allocating land and to ensure that the special economic zone initiatives are established to provide incentives to horticulture farmers.