Livestock farmers disapprove discriminatory schemes
Baboki Kayawe | Friday August 7, 2015 16:58
Speaking during the official opening of the show yesterday, the Kweneng district farmer, who has been a member of this committee since 1988, bemoaned that that livestock farmers did not benefit from the Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme (ACGS). The scheme falls under the mandate of the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, was set up to assist dry land crop farmers and reduce their debt obligations with participating banks, in case of crop failure caused by a natural disaster.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), it originally covered drought only, but floods and hailstorm were subsequently included following a directive from President Ian Khama.
“While other farmers are utilising this scheme, livestock farmers get nothing out of it. We would like to make an appeal that you consider adding livestock farmers to benefit as well,” said Gobuamang. He also pleaded that they too like crop producers be exempted from value added taxation when they purchase stock from outside.
Moreover, Gobuamang said the office of the registrar of livestock needed financial capacity because in their knowledge an officer was deployed back in 2012, yet it was not servicing farmers.
The stud breeder said this devalued their stock as there was no local entity that gauged as well as registered the worth and value of livestock.
As a result, they have resorted to registering with the South African breed society.
Having a functional local registrar, Gobuamang said would help advocate for full compensation when predators have killed their livestock as evidence of the animal’s true value would be easily availed. He decried the current compensation regime where stud cattle valued as highly as P60 thousand were not granted full compensation in the event they were killed by wild animals.
Just before delivering his official remarks, President Ian Khama responded to Gobuamang’s concerns. Khama said the ACGS was currently under review, and added that the finance ministry would consider looking into inclusion of livestock farmers in the scheme, noting that the same should be done with VAT exemptions.
He said that government would do anything possible to ensure that they grow the agriculture sector in Botswana.
Khama also stressed that registered livestock were entitled to full compensation though demonstration that the animal was taken care of was mandatory before processing the recompense.
Meanwhile, Khama said the theme of this year’s National Agricultural Show; ‘Practicing Smart Agriculture to Combat the Effect of Climate Change’ was very appropriate in the wake of challenges presented by climate change.
“It calls upon farmers to adopt farming practices that mitigate the severe effects of high temperatures and prolonged dry spells, which are associated with climate change. This ravaging drought, we are currently experiencing, is yet another lesson that our farming practices should adapt to this environment,” he said. Khama discouraged farmers from abandoning agriculture just because of droughts, but to rather change the way they produce food under such challenging agricultural conditions.
Khama asked local farmers to look to Israel whose rainfall is not even comparable to Botswana’s even under the prevailing drought, with the use of innovative new methods and technologies continued to enjoy food security as well as exporting to other nations.
“This is an opportunity to be innovative and resort to new methods and technologies to produce under such conditions. It is for this reason that farming methods such as conservation agriculture are promoted,” he said.
Khama stressed that the vitality of the use of improved crop varieties that are drought tolerant and high yielding, as well as adoption of proper crop husbandry practices but however acknowledged agricultural infrastructure was still lacking.