The BDC Public Relations Officer, Gomolemo Zimona, has said that two years after the Botswana Development Corporation came up with an idea of establishing a diary project that they hoped would ease the problem of dairy products shortages in the country, the project is yet to start running and the current problem they are facing is reported to be lack of water at the farm they have acquired.
Zimona said that since acquiring the farm, they had drilled several boreholes on it and had hit blanks.
“Up to now, we are still trying to find water on the farm as we have been hitting blanks in the past. Our hope is that we will be lucky next time and find water then we will move forward with the project,” he said.
He explained that the Dairy project consumes a lot of water that is why there is need to find a reliable source of water in the form of a well or borehole on the farm. He added that such water is needed for watering lucerne to feed the cows, amongst other things.
“As our aim is to establish a big project, we want to be able to even grow lucerne to feed the cows instead of having to buy it that is why we need a lot of water,” he said.
He also confirmed that they have found a local partner to replace a South African one who pulled out of the project last year citing some personal reasons for doing so and are confident that the project will go forward.
Zimona has in the past said that BDC plans are to produce enough dairy products that will see the country that currently imports over half of the dairy products, mainly from South Africa, being self sufficient, which he said is almost the case.
