Tombale certain BMC will bounce back

BOTHO BAPUTAKI
Correspondent | Wednesday July 31, 2013 00:00

 

He made the assertion at the Serowe District Show, which was held last Thursday to Saturday under the theme, Working Towards Improvement and Sustainability of Agricultural and Trade Activities as Tools in Enhancing Poverty Eradication.'I wish to assure farmers here and elsewhere in Botswana that I and my colleagues at BMC have vowed to return the commission to viability with the support of farmers and the government. If we all do whatever is required of us, BMC will indeed recover,' said Tombale.

He said that it is not a secret that BMC was performing badly in the last few years leading to huge losses that impacted negatively on the livelihoods of farmers.He also said he was aware of increased calls for the liberalisation of the export of both live cattle and beef products to allow other players to compete with BMC.He said that he believes the problem has not been so much about the need for competition but BMC's poor performance.

He added that currently at least 80 percent of cattle are in communal areas, where they do not comply with the lucrative European market conditions of supply. 'This has seriously affected the performance of BMC because of low throughput due to unavailability of livestock. It is our belief at BMC that farmers should aim to utilise the recently enacted Integrated Farming Land Policy as well as cluster fenced fields arrangements to make sure that their cattle become European market compliant. BMC has recently re-introduced district offices to help farmers with their initiatives,' he said.

Tombale said generally, district shows are by their nature meant to give members of the host community the opportunity to showcase their goods and services.Tombale revealed that government recently announced that 2013/14 is a drought year due to lack of rain.He further said the time has come for crop farmers to start producing livestock fodder so that when crops such as maize fail, they are harvested for fodder development.Tombale revealed that currently the country imports livestock feeds for feedlots.He said since the market is available for feed development, what is required is proper management of the country's rain-fed agricultural production.

He said commercial farming has a huge potential to contribute substantially to the economy and also be an enabler for economic diversification.He also highlighted that the government has put in place programmes, especially for youth development. Tombale said agriculture needs citizens to be more proactive and deal with challenges as they arise.'If that can be done, then drought and other similar challenges can be managed,' he said.