21 Apr 2024

Farmers in Nata have been urged to take advantage of Temo Letlotlo and to choose from priority crops to plough during the winter season. 

Speaking at Palamaokuwe Field Day and workshop in Nata on Thursday, Farm Mechanisation Officer, Ms Boitshwarelo Vangreunen said it was imperative that farmers understood that climate change was real hence the need to move with the times by adopting new technologies and methods to continue producing food. 

Ms Vangrenuen said with government bringing new programmes and policies to help farmers, it was upon them to up their game and choose from priority crops offered in Temo Letlotlo to plough all year round. 

“With the current situation of uncertainty of rains, lets prioritise on crops which will withstand these severe weather conditions,” she emphasised. 

She asserted that not only was government helping farmers with crops to focus on, there were subsidies for farming equipment to enable them to easily plough, capitalising on the little moisture that they get. 

She urged them to also capitalise on the availability of the market following import ban of certain products. 

She noted that crops such as wheat, which were not popular locally, should be considered for ploughing particularly during winter. 

Nata based Chief Technical Assistant  Ms Bophepa Makgethe encouraged farmers to challenge themselves and come together for a common goal of producing food for the nation. 

She added that though the government had encouraged farmers to group themselves to explore cluster fencing, many were still reluctant despite the many benefits such as borehole drilling, fencing, as well as electricity installation,.

 She said in her area of jurisdiction, there were no farmers who have taken up cluster fencing. She said 116 farmers have planted 216 hectares from a baseline of 1 500 hectors. 

These outcomes, she said, called for action and paradigm shift in the way they have been doing things, moving from the traditional approach to the latest technologies. 

In his welcome remarks, Kgosi Justice Ntuane, said Batswana should adopt mindset change to improve farming production. Kgosi Ntuane said commitment was necessary for programmes such as Temo Letlotlo to realise results. ends