Temo Letlotlo to supplement strategic grain reserves

Government’s new inputs programme, Temo Letlotlo, has put a provision that requires all participating farmers to make a compulsory donation of 50kg bag of grain for every hectare subsidised to the strategic grain reserve effective the 2024-2025 planting season.

Documents availed on Temo Letlotlo, which is replacing the Integrated Support Programme for Arable Agriculture Development (ISPAAD), states that the move is expected to promote ‘Go Ipelega’ and cultivate the spirit of self reliance amongst farmers.

To facilitate seamless execution of the scheme, the Botswana Agricultural Marketing Board (BAMB) has been tasked with the responsibility of collecting donations.

At minimum, BAMB is required to keep 10,000 tonnes of sorghum, 10,000 tonnes of maize, and 2,000 tonnes of beans.

Earlier this year, the Minister of Agriculture, Fidelis Molao, revealed that government plans to provide funding for the construction of additional 12 grain storage silos in Pandamatenga as part of the common facilities to be utilised by commercial farmers operating within the agricultural Special Economic Zone.

The additional facilities are expected to enhance both the efficiency and efficacy of grain management. The provision of additional facilities will also facilitate the separation of crops being sorghum, maize, wheat and sunflower while other produce such as millet, ground nuts and cowpeas will be catered for in a warehouse.

Temo Letlotlo is an output reward based agro-ecological programme whose main aim is to improve food security in Botswana. The programme, will be implemented in the next ploughing season to replace the ISPAAD programme, which was deemed not effective.

Meanwhile, plans are underway to appoint Batswana owned companies to undertake extension service and complement the public service extension which has been shrouded with backlog. This move will allow for gradual disengagement of the public service from direct extension service delivery.

Currently, the ministry has 268 extension officers across the country with each extension officer overseeing an average of 438 farmers. Government belies this extension farmer ration is too high and cannot facilitate adequate contact between the farmers and the extension officer.

Under the Temo Letlotlo, the extension ration will be reduced to 120 farmers, which means about 160 extension officers will be recruited to complement the existing 268 for facilitating 10,500 farmers.

“However, the ration will still be inadequate to facilitate the envisaged level of contact between the farmers and the extension officer especially when considering the terrain and distance between farmers,” reads the Temo Letlotlo document.

The individual farmer extension method will be complemented by mass and group extension methods to further increase contact, it added.

Mass extension includes village meetings and extension campaigns while group extensions includes group meetings and demonstrations, field days, farm walks and farm field school.

The new programme requires extension officers to undertake at least four visits within 30-45 days of the planting season, which will be during the land preparation, after planting, during fertiliser application period and 20 days before harvesting.

“Under the new programme, the ministry will no longer conduct soil testing and analysis for farmers,” the document stated.