Ralotsia forecasts bumper harvest
Goitsemodimo Kaelo | Friday March 3, 2017 15:34
When presenting his ministry’s budget estimates for 2017/18 financial year in Parliament this week, Ralotsia said a total of 9,205.36 hectares have been planted by 2,342 (1132 males and 1210 females) farmers by end of the January 2017 season.
These include 7,466.28ha of cereals, 1,422.09ha (legumes), 106.22ha (fodder), 42.23ha (oilseeds) while other crops contributed 265.20ha. This is a decrease from the previous season as 3,164 farmers had planted 13,101.54ha at the same period.
By comparison, the 2016/17 planting season took off slowly despite most districts receiving early and significant amounts of rainfall in November unlike the 2015/16 cropping season, which was characterised by prolonged periods of dry spells and extremely high temperatures.
Ralotsia said, however based on the current rainfall situation, good yields are anticipated during the current ploughing season.
“Adequate rains have been received countrywide, hence better harvests than that of the preceding years are expected,” he said.
He said the number of hectares planted is expected to have grown significantly by the end of the ploughing season, which would in turn increase total production.
Meanwhile, the minister pointed to the outbreak of pests such as tomato leaf miner or Tuta absoluta and the armyworm, which attacks maize and sorghum.
He said already 198.51ha of tomatoes has been lost as they were infested. Contributing to the debate, Memebr of Parliament for Takatokwane Ngaka Ngaka said the ministry should consider compensating horticultural farmers during pest outbreaks.
“Minister you should consider introducing compensation similar to the one given to farmers when there is a cattle disease outbreak such as FMD.
They are also losing a lot of money when they are forced to destroy all that they have as a way of controlling the outbreak,” he said.
MP for Mmathethe-Molapowabojang, also the Minister of Tertiary Education, Research, Science and Technology Alfred Madigele called for the enforcement of the monitoring and evaluation framework component under the Integrated Support Programme for Arable Agricultural Development (ISPAAD).
He said government is investing a lot of money in the program to increase the country’s food production but the return on investment is questionable.
A total of P564 million has been proposed for ISPAAD under the current financial year. Madigele stated that with an improved monitoring and evaluation framework in place, the country would attain food security.