Agriculture records lowest harvest

Mmegi Editor | Friday August 4, 2017 11:49

This is despite numerous interventions by government to encourage people to venture into crop and livestock production. 

Programmes such as ISPAAD, NAMPAAD, Young Farmers Fund and others have been put in place to assist farmers to produce food for the nation and reduce its heavy reliance on food imports.

A prolonged drought that started in 2012 has indeed compromised the desired outcomes from these interventions and there is very little to celebrate, as compared to the money that has poured on these interventions.

When the skies finally opened up last year to give us better rains in more than a decade, then along came other undesirable ‘visitors’ such as the armyworm that devastated farmers’ crops.

These are signs that we need to employ different strategies if we are to succeed in food production, particularly arable farming.

We have to inform ourselves of how other countries with a similar climate to ours are able to defy the predicament to produce food for themselves.

Then we have to bring in technologies that have the capacity to wipe out these insects the moment there are signs of their existence.

Secondly, we have to educate our farmers on the importance of using new techniques in the fields.

Recently, the government announced a new requirement to conduct soil tests to qualify to be a beneficiary of ISPAAD.

This is a welcome development because it will not only create jobs, but will also inform the farmers on which crops to grow in their fields.

We have said earlier that the blanket approach to farming, where all farmers are given same seeds such as maize is not working for us.

This was at the time when the drought was devastating the country and maize being the biggest failure to produce any harvest because of its weak resistance to dry conditions.

Perhaps the Botswana University of Agriculture and Natural Resources should also intensify research and collaborate with other universities to come up with better strategies or methods that will work for this country’s farmers.

It is disheartening that a sector that was very productive just 50 years ago is now facing demise yet no nation can be secure if it cannot produce food for itself.

As we march into a new decade post our silver jubilee let us introspect and intensify food production to ensure that we are a safe and secure nation that can feed itself during times of conflict with neighbours.

 

Today’s thought 

“Without food, we cannot survive, and that is why issues that affect the food industry are so important. “ 

– Marcus Samuelsson