Africa-Press – Botswana. Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA) office, under construction at the Tsabong Rural Administration Centre, will support farmers financially and small stock value chains and other businesses.
The office is expected to open in the second week of September.
Addressing Tsabong District full council meeting on Tuesday, Ministry of Entrepreneurship Deputy Permanent Secretary, Mr Mbakiso Morapedi, said agriculture was one of the most important economic activities that drove Botswana’s economy, therefore, government has found it necessary to transform the sector into a sustainable entity, technology driven and commercially viable industry.
He said construction of the Tsabong Multispecies Abattoir opened up many business opportunities for Batswana and therefore it was critical to bring in financiers to develop the small stock sector which was seen as a viable industry to drive the economy.
“It is therefore necessary to reform small stock sector so that it can contribute more significantly to economic growth, improve national food security and grow Botswana’s export base,” he said.
Mr Morapedi highlighted that beef industry has been the mainstay export base and smallstock has been added to diversify Botswana’s product portfolio on the international market.
‘Ultimately we want to see growth of small stock cluster development around this area. We shall do things differently in the parastatals, improve and introduce new things as a new ministry. We see job opportunities mushrooming from operationalisation of the abattoir such as commercial office space, real estate, information communication technology, amongst others,” he said.
He said the ministry was mandated, among others, to ensure that it brought the Tsabong Multispecies Abattoir to life, operationalise the abattoir which was currently under construction. The abattoir will be run by state owned enterprise Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) which boasts of a wealth of experience in running abattoir spanning over five decades.
He added that it shall be capitalised on the fact that BMC has the capability to export to international markets and has the technical expertise as well as being in a possession of licensing required for export market which placed BMC in a much better standing to start.
Meanwhile, he said Ministry of Entrepreneurship in collaboration with Ministry of Agriculture has started consultations with key stakeholders to bring everyone on board, adding that they continued to thrash out matters surrounding abattoir operationalisation.
A task team meets often and was alive to the poor infrastructure on the ground supporting small stock growth, poor animal management practices, high small stock mortality rate, low off take rates, low prices, low kidding rates, droughts, and small stock theft. Thus, he said, all must work together as a collective to ensure that the abattoir delivers.
“This is a national project for all Batswana, and the benefit will be enjoyed across the country,” he said.
BMC Chief Executive Officer, Mr David Tsheboeng, said they were readying to start operationalising the Tsabong multispecies abattoir soon.
However, he said, there were some complexities on the ground as human resource capital, high density residential apartments, train locals were needed.
Mr Tsheboeng said locals must tap into various opportunities to make facilities available for lease.
He said the small stock farmers must also produce quality small stock in good numbers to be able to sustain running of the abattoir. He said the road infrastructure must be developed to support the new development.
“We need to maintain our district internal road networks as well as external routes to neighbouring countries to take advantage of market opportunities there,” he said.
Mr Tsheboeng said it must be noted that Botswana was still importing chevon and mutton.
“If we are going to operate the abattoir efficiently we need to deal with the local market so that we reduce the import bill of meat coming from outside,” he said.
Mr Tsheboeng warned that the requirements for exporting meat to other countries were stringent and therefore farmers must be alive to small stock traceability.
He also said BMC needed to tick some of the boxes before operating such as getting certification which entailed assessment of hazard analysis and critical control points.
He buttressed that the parastatal was highly regarded for producing premium quality meat internationally and was approved for export to Norway, Europe, and United Arab Emirates. Therefore the new abattoir had an advantage of ridding on such markets.
He said there were trade protocols between countries and trade agreements to be followed between member states and therefore these are some of the areas they needed to attend to.
Norway, he said, presented a lucrative market and therefore it was critical to structure the small stock market well.
“We must move away from the subsistence way of farming to a commercialized farming. We need to replicate Lobu Small Stock Farm model to optimize supply. There are good prices there, they need about 500 tons of small stock per year in the Norway markets,” he divulged.
The Ministry of Agriculture’s Acting Director for Procurement and Facilities Management, Mr Ofentse Kgaogano, said preparations were thick on the ground to prepare farmers to supply in good numbers, quality stock to the abattoir adding that legislation and policy were being aligned to grow the small stock sector.
To date, he said, Meat Regulatory Authority has been enacted by Parliament which would help regulate the small stock sector as well.
He said the recent rationalisation of ministries now moved agricultural commercial aspects to Ministry of Entrepreneurship.
Mr Kgaogano said for a long time Ministry of Agriculture has been a referee and a player and now they shall be sorely left with dealing with food production.
He said construction of the abattoir was 90 percent complete and they needed more numbers to be able to sustain the abattoir once it began to operate.
According to a survey conducted in 2019, he said, sheep and goats recorded around the Kgalagadi area were around 90 000 while cattle was 80 000.
He said the abattoir had the capacity to slaughter between 11 000 to 13 000 cattle per annum, while smallstock would be 65 000 to 70 000 per annum.
He said the capacity of the abattoir could generate an estimated gross revenue of about P110 million to P135 million for beef on the current carcass pricing. For small stock it could be about P 48 million to P56 million gross revenue per annum.
For More News And Analysis About Botswana Follow Africa-Press
