The Minister of Agriculture, Christian De Graaf said during the handover of the AgroMetStation in Sebele on Friday that the facility came at a time when the weather is more variable, crop yield uncertain, food prices more volatile, rainfall less predictable and food shortage much more frequent. He said the weather station is an invaluable tool, which marks the beginning of an innovative way in which farmers can now effectively utilise the convergence of telecommunications, meteorology and agronomy in order to become efficient managers in mitigating of climate change. He added that agriculture in Botswana is a great challenge, hence the government over the years has taken initiatives to increase food production through support programmes aimed at small farmers. "These efforts have had different levels of success. Currently, through ISPAAD, production of food grains such as maize and sorghum has increased threefold from 30,000 tons to 80,000 metric tons," De Graaf said.
He stated that when farmers adopt improved technologies and other forms of support, production will improve three to four times, from 300km to 1,000km per hectare. "The pioneering technology behind the gejoAgroMetStation and the collective entrepreneurial spirit that made it possible, delivers clear objectives that promote food security, increase farm incomes and improve the nutritional status of the beneficiaries and target the resource poor, vulnerable and individual farmers. With the benefit of technology like the gejoAgrMetStation, smallholder farmers become more competitive, rain fed agriculture become viable, which in turn will make farming interesting again thus our aspiring youth will enthusiastically embrace agriculture as a career choice and young farmers will turn to commercial agriculture," De Graaf said.
