Mosisedi farmers beat the odds
Isaac Pinielo | Friday June 10, 2016 14:23
Their survival through the past years has earned them a Ministry of Agriculture Excellence Award through their association called Mosisedi Commercial Farmers Association.
The association’s chairman, Quett Rabai indicated that enhancement of crop production in the country can contribute immensely to the national food security.
“This can be achieved if we had more farming clusters such as ours and the Pandamatenga Commercial Farmers Association (PCFA).”
Mosisedi, a body representing 23 commercial farmers in Ngwaketse South, is the second largest commercial farmers association after the PCFA, which has 42 members.
There are other associations in various districts of the country that are mostly for small farmers. According to Rabai, this season was a very bad one although it was better than last year.
“There were no rains towards the end of last year to December. The rain only came very late around January 20 then we started ploughing,” he said.
He said those farmers that ploughed in December were severely hit by the drought, noting that those that ploughing sorghum mid-January were better.
He, however, pointed out that towards the end of January temperatures were back to where they were in December, proving to be a very hectic season. Even if it appears that those who planted in January were better, Rabai said the production was not satisfactory because the germination was not good.
“Signs had already shown that this was a drought year.
The expected yield is also going to be affected and we won’t get what we had hoped for,” he explained.
He said he expects that only 40% of the members would get a good harvest, but they would still get less than two tonnes per hectare because of the drought.
The total farmland for Mosisedi covers an area of approximately 10,000 hectares, and 75% of the land has been debushed ready for cultivation.
He indicated that on a good season the expected yield is three tonnes per hectare for both sorghum and maize and beans, as they are the three crops that Mosisedi farmers specialise on.
“It is one or two farmers who are doing sunflower, but for me, my specialty is sorghum, I don’t mind to plant the whole field with sorghum,” said Rabai.
He added that the type of sorghum plant is called Mister Buster, and is also grown at Panda.
Rabai revealed that they have an invasion of the quelea bird and doves in large quantities. He said they have got some equipment to scare away the birds.
He said the breeding season for the birds is usually in March and that during that period they have hatched and are wild and so evasive. Other challenges that the farmers are facing include shortage of water.
“We need a lot of water. Research shows that we need about 12 million litres a day,” he said.
He, however, noted that they get technical knowledge and technical support from the Ministrty of Agriculture, citing programmes such as the Integrated Support Programme for Arable Agricultural Development (ISPAAD) and National Master Plan for Arable Agriculture and Dairy Farming (NAMPAAD).
According to Rabai, drought is a burning issue, which leads to most farmers failing to service their loans they got from financiers.
“The drought was so intense that some failed to raise the 15% input to the extent of selling their cattle,” he said.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations (UN) said Botswana’s climate is semi-arid, with low soil fertility, and highly variable rainfall, leading to a very low agricultural potential with only 0.65% of land area suitable for arable agriculture.
“Consequently, the agricultural sector contributes only about three percent of the GDP. Major crops grown in Botswana are sorghum, maize, millet and cowpeas,” stated the FAO.