|
|
Botswana: Poor Farmers Cry for Insemination Centre
 |
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
The Voice (Francistown)
1 April 2008
Posted to the web 2 April 2008
Legolo Morabeng
TShabong
The Ministry of Agriculture has been called upon to introduce artificial insemination at Lobu Field Station so that communities in the Middlepits catchment area can improve their livestock.
Speaking in an interview Kgosi Gilbert Botsheleng of Khuis village said Lobu station was only benefiting rich farmers because the poor could not afford to buy improved livestock during auction sales.
In addition, he said the introduction of artificial insemination could help ordinary farmers to improve their livestock even if they could be made to pay a certain fee.
He said when Khuis and surrounding areas agreed to pave way for the development of Lobu field station in 1978 they hoped to benefit from the station but this was not the case.
He said Lobu had occupied grazing area of Khuis farmers but they were not benefiting from its services.
In the past they were able to buy improved breed of rams at a subsided price of P40 as a way of encouraging them to buy well bred rams and improve their small stock.
He said since the introduction of auction sale only the few or the rich benefit from Lobu because an 'ordinary' Motswana farmer could not be able to buy from the sale as the rich hike the prices, he said..
Kgosi Piet Manyoro of Khawa settlement said in the past farmers used to benefit enormously from Lobu but at the moment they were not benefiting that much since the introduction of the auction sale.
Mr Manyoro however, said they acknowledge the training offered at Lobu because farmers in the area had improved tremendously on taking care of their livestock and how they use the land that livestock occupy.
For his part, Lobu Field Station assistant manager Mr Chakalisa Matilamba said the station was benefiting Middlepits and surrounding villages as well as other Batswana.
"This station is for the government and should benefit each and every Motswana, it is not for the Middlepits region only", he added
Mr Matilamba said the people of Middlepits and surrounding villages should realise this.
According to him the community still benefited from the station because livestock was still produced and sold in this station as per the objectives of the station.
He said when the station was ready to auction the livestock, they advertise around Kgalagadi South and this gave the people or farmers of Kgalagadi South the opportunity because of their proximity to the station.
The 11 000-hectare Lobu small stock farm, which is divided into paddocks, has goats and sheep of different breeds including Savannah, karakul, dropper and about 69 cattle which were introduced at the realisation that certain grazing areas has to be utilised.
Lobu was initially constructed as a karakul farm so as to help farmers that produced pelts; it then grew to include other small stock such as goats and production of rams .
The objective was to sell them to the farmers so that they could improve their breeds.
|
BOPA
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 2008 The Voice. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
