Africa-Press – Botswana. Grade Ware Solutions’ Mr Raphael Chifana has implored agribusinesses to embrace technology.
During a public lecture at Southern District Beef Farmers’ Association field day at Naledi Farms on Saturday, Mr Chifana said technology enhanced business’ operational efficiency, thus optimising out-put and maximising profits.
He said the company had developed a cross-function application system called Mpatise App for agricultural producers.
The app, he said, was a meeting point for buyers and sellers.
He narrated that buyers and sellers could share ideas on how best to improve their agricultural produce, adding the social network platform made it easier for agriculturalists to practice smart farming.
Mr Chifana said leveraging advanced technology for tracking, monitoring, automating and analysing operations remained paramount for the economy.
He said seeking out ways to employ technology to optimise organisational and individual performance at this point in time remained crucial for economic fluidity.
He said the Mpatise App presented opportunities for pastoralists to reclaim their lost livestock, adding it was a one stop shop for agriculturalists.
He said cattle transporters were also loaded in the system for ease of doing business, noting numerous agricultural solutions were offered through the app.
Mr Chifana was of the view that for the agriculture industry to soar to greater heights, intensive technology needed to be exploited for the best interest and benefit of the country.
In his presentation, Botswana Meat Commission’s (BMC) livestock procurement executive manager, Mr Kenneth Makubate, appreciated the role the association played in addressing farmers’ concerns.
He said the southern beef block farmers supplied BMC with quality cattle.
Mr Makubate said BMC was targeting to slaughter 80 000 cattle for this year, but thus far they had slaughtered 7 817 animals of which 384 were from southern beef block farmers.
He expressed optimism that the region could still do more after addressing key issues that prevented supply of cattle to BMC and were looking at improving the relationship through formal engagements with suppliers.
“Through engagements like this one and continuous support, BMC envision an improved contribution from southern district beef farmers’ association members which will ultimately increase throughput or quantity slaughter at the facility,” he said.
He said BMC had employed different strategies intended to improve productivity at farm level citing offering competitive and sustainable cattle prices that would allow producers to invest in beef subsector.
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