Agronomist predicts high yield
KABO MOKGOABONE
Staff Writer
| Friday January 25, 2008 00:00
Phineas Pheto of the National Master Plan for Arable Agriculture and Dairy Development (NAMPAAD) argues that the good yield forecast is not based on the fact that people have crops in their fields. It is based on the continuous rains covering large parts of Botswana.
Pheto says farmers who had prepared their land and waited to accumulate soil moisture and planted in late November to 2007 have their crops at the vegetative stage. 'These are the crops that have potential to achieve better yields,' he says.
Late last year, the agronomist advised farmers to practice modern methods of farming in an effort to get higher yields. He says that farmers should prepare the soil well before the rainy season, even if its costly.
He says that those who planted early are suffering because their crops are at the wrong stage for the rains. He says that this group of farmers had their crops flowering and were adversely affected.
Last year, the NAMPAAD agronomist says that farmers who planted watermelons and sweet reeds at the beginning of October had a high chance of getting the best yields by December and reaching the market before others.
Pheto advises farmers who are planting or are in the process of doing so that the current rains might affect them because the fields are wet and not easy to work in. He says that lost time will mean that farmers do not achieve the hectares that they had wanted to cover and that if they plough late, crops may be affected by frost before they mature. Normally, frost comes around mid May or April in some areas.
'So if farmers grow the crops that take about 130 days or more to mature at this time, they are likely to be affected by frost,' he points out. Although, farmers might start celebrating over a possible high yield, Pheto advises that during a good rainy season like this, pests, weeds and diseases are a problem.
He says as the rains become persistent, farmers are unable to weed mechanically or by hand. 'By the time the rains stop, the weeds have overgrown and affected potential yield. On the other hand, pests are reproducing. A variety of insects which comprise most pests are normally abundant during good rains.'
He says currently, the common pests are the corn cricket or setotojane. Another pest that feeds on cereals and cowpeas is the African bollworm. The migratory and destructive quelea birds or thaga find good rainy years a better time for breeding.
Pheto warns of ergot disease, which is not so common, though it surfaced during the high rains of 2005-2006.