Agro processing way to reduce postharvest losses

The first- ever professional and national Agro Product Processing Exhibition ( APPE) whose primary aim is to promote agricultural value chain through entrepreneurship in order to assist farmers maximise profits, is on the cards.

Early this year records showed that food imports accounted for 11.3 percent or P1 billion in monetary value. The contribution of agriculture to the economy is estimated at less than 2 percent of the GDP, though still very much vital to the livelihood of many citizens.

Although different types of farming exist in Botswana, farmers are still subjected to a smaller portion of the cake losing billions of Pula as they don’t process agricultural products for both local and international markets. The APPE is an initiation of three prime youth natives of Moshupa village who instead of folding their arms or waiting to be absorbed in the job market, decided to take advantage of their education to do something.

The trio - Omphemetse Mogorosi a holder of Bachelor of Science degree in animal science, Oagufi Seakolo ( Marketing), and Oabile Thibelang ( Marketing) - formed a company that is registered as a branch of another company under CIPA. “Before that we operated more as a community service not a profit- making organisation’’. They are still roping in other experts from different sectors of agriculture.

They threw themselves into serious action by going into partnership with the Ministry of Entrepreneurship and organised a national exhibition with the sole aim of promoting agricultural value chain through entrepreneurship.

In an interview with Botswana Guardian, Mogorosi said this is the vision brought by Farmers Clan in collaboration with the area Member of Parliament and Minister of Entrepreneurship, Karabo Gare.

“We are an entity which has been providing consultancy services to farmers in animal production, nutrition and health. We have been training aspiring farmers like the YDF and the elderly farmers who want to go into modern trends of farming. “During our consultations, we found that there is a gap that needs to be closed as to open up the market and preserve the postharvest losses which is the agro product processing.

“In short this means trying to add value into agricultural commodities like you have maize you can make samp out of it, melons you can make jam; cabbage can produce things like chakalaka etc. In that way you are just trying to make a market for farmers so that they can be motivated while they are in production”.

They found that in order to stimulate the agro processing industry they should start by doing exhibitions to bring on- board those already in agro processing in the areas of animal feeds and fertilizers.

“We are bringing in a platform where people can benchmark and learn from those who are already in the industry to motivate those who would want to venture into the industry. We are also trying to bring suppliers to the market as well as get farmers close to people who could buy their products as well as go into production using such products. “Some farmers can actually group themselves, store their milk so that big milk companies can buy from them. Even the small man can still use that milk to process their own sour milk, in that way we will be reducing the urban- rural migration and people can stay in their respective areas without going to look for jobs in towns and cities. We are trying to diversify the economy through agricultural processing”.

Among the challenges they face is that most farmers are elderly people that don’t believe in change; lack of resources to cover Moshupa extension area and the country at large.

Mogorosi appealed for sponsorship or partnership to move the event forward. They have targeted around 40 stalls and more than 500 attendees.