ISPAAD tractor owners in stalemate with gov’t
Friday, November 25, 2022 | 310 Views |
Farmer ploughing with a tractor.PIC MORERI SEJAKGOMO
Since the Integrated Support Programme for Arable Agriculture Development (ISPAAD)'s inception in 2008, tractor owners say government has been paying them P1,160 per hectare for their ploughing services.
However, the Botswana Tractor Association says that the rates paid by government have remained stagnant for more than a decade and the costs of providing mechanised tillage services have increased through pressures such as inflation, fuel, and spare parts.
“Betrayal hurts, but knowingwho was betraying hurts even more.”- Garima SoniWhat the men of Ditlharapa, Molete and neighbouring villages uncovered is a cross-border enterprise. The modus operandi, as the suspect himself reportedly confessed, is industrial: groups operating in multiple villages, fences cut with impunity, stolen goats walked into South Africa, warehoused at Makhubung, then sold in batches of 200 to a commercial farmer in...