Ministry of agriculture Public Relations officer Moreri Moesi says that his Ministry is hopeful that they will have another bumper harvest next year as they have already dispatched seeds to all districts around the country where they expect farmers to collect them and start ploughing and planting.
“We are hopeful that in the coming year we will have an even bigger harvest than we did this year as we have already sent out seeds to farmers across the country“, he said.
He added that their hopes for a bumper harvest are supported by the fact that the Department of Meteorology recently said that they expect normal to above normal rainfall the coming ploughing season.
“The news about normal and above normal rainfall has cheered us and it is our hope that farmers around the country will make use of the rains to plough so that we achieve our hopes of a bumper harvest”, he said.
On queries raised by some farmers last season that some of the seeds they received from the Ministry were of poor quality such that some of the seeds failed to germinate, Moesi admitted that they had received such reports, but that they were isolated as demonstrated by the biggest harvest the country has ever had.
He also reassured farmers that they are always sampling some of the seeds to make sure that only the best seeds are given to them. Last year the government spent P80m to assist farmers by hiring tractors to plough for them, buying seeds and fertilizers under the ISPAAD scheme.
An alternative ISPAAD scheme that caters for farmers in mostly western parts of Botswana where rainfall is low has also been started. Under this scheme, farmers are assisted by being given goats, sheep and having their boreholes equipped .
