Head of Public Relations at Botswana Meat Commission (BMC), Brian Dioka says they expect more farmers to start selling their cattle to the Francistown abattoir after the recent Pitso that was held in Francistown.
During the Pitso, BMC promised farmers that they will be paid within 14 days of delivering their cattle. Farmers also raised complaints about the low prices that BMC was paying for cattle that are not exported to the European Union market. However, the BMC revealed that a delegation from the EU was recently in Botswana to conduct its own investigations with view of determining if cattle from the Francistown area could be allowed into the lucrative EU market.
On other issues, Dioka said that farmers complained about elephants which damage their farms fences and force them to incur extra costs in repairing them. Farmers from areas such as Palapye and Mahalapye called on government to control water that seeps out from sewages as it ends up in streams, thereby contaminating the water that their cattle drink, resulting in their value diminishing because of measles contamination.
The decision to hold the Pitso with farmers north of Dibete was apparently made in order to try and urge famers to sell their cattle to the Francistown abattoir which was falling far short of slaughtering its target of 400 cattle per day.
