{"id":23127,"date":"2022-12-22T12:56:40","date_gmt":"2022-12-22T12:56:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/?p=23127"},"modified":"2022-12-22T11:56:44","modified_gmt":"2022-12-22T11:56:44","slug":"m102-million-to-subsidise-farming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/m102-million-to-subsidise-farming","title":{"rendered":"M102 million to subsidise farming"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>THE government has injected a massive M102 million to subsidise farming inputs for the summer cropping season. This was announced by Minister of Finance, Dr Rets\u030celisitsoe Matlanyane, during her mid-term budget in parliament last Friday.<\/p>\n

The government will subsidise for seeds and pesticides to allow farmers to boost production. \u201cThis came as an initiative to improve crop production and productivity,\u201d Dr Matlanyane said. Dr Matlanyane said the inputs procured this far include maize seeds and fertilisers which were distributed to approximately 6 000 farmers.<\/p>\n

According to a memo by the Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Advocate \u2019Mole Kumalo, issued on December 8, the price of a subsidized 50kg bag of fertiliser (CaSuMa 6:2:1) is now M149.<\/p>\n

A 10kg bag of yellow maize and white maize seeds is now M285 and M159 respectively. Kumalo said the sale of summer cropping inputs began last Friday for all districts which received the inputs.<\/p>\n

He said due to limited time available for planting of summer crops, the available inputs have been distributed to the districts where time still permits to plant summer crops.<\/p>\n

Kumalo urged all the District Administrators (DAs) to ensure that inputs are sold only to farmers who will be able to plant within the remaining time and not to those who are going to sell or keep for the next season.<\/p>\n

Kumalo further urged all DAs to ensure that priority is given to farmers whose fields are within the high lying areas which are not prone to waterlogging.<\/p>\n

The chairperson of the Lesotho National Farmers\u2019 Union (LENAFU) in Leribe, Daniel Chakela, said while this was a good initiative, it was coming too late as \u201cit is already late for summer cropping for most of the regions\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the previous term of this budget, the quantity of inputs was low,\u201d Chakela said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFarmers were limited to buying a certain number of inputs and the number was so low,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the farmers plant over 100 hectares which requires over 200 bags of fertilisers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Chakela said it is their belief that now that the budget has been extended, even the number of inputs will increase. He said previous governments had ignored the agricultural sector.<\/p>\n

He said the Southern African Development Community (SADC) had agreed that each country shall allocate at least 10 percent of their budget to the agricultural sector.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, in Lesotho this is not the case,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead the budget for agriculture has been declining (over the years).
\n\u201cThis has seriously reduced agricultural production,\u201d he said. Chakela said the state of the agricultural sector in Lesotho requires attention from all sectors.<\/p>\n

He said farmers need to be engaged in the budget planning and policy formulations. \u201cEvery new policy implemented directly affects us,\u201d he said. The programme manager of the LENAFU, Khotso Lepheane, said if there is an imbalance of agricultural inputs, the needs of farmers would remain unaddressed.<\/p>\n

Lepheane said some of the challenges in the previous term budget include the increased prices of agricultural inputs in the markets which in turn lowered the quantity of inputs.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs much as this supplementary budget will benefit more farmers, it is already late for the summer cropping season,\u201d Lepheane said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor farmers in the highlands, the planting season for crops such as beans and maize ends in October due to the weather conditions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis says, only farmers in the lowlands will benefit.<\/p>\n

\u201d Lepheane said some of the farmers had already committed their fields since the information was not clearly disseminated.<\/p>\n

He said in the coming budget, they would like to be engaged on what varieties and the number of inputs which will be available. \u201cThis will help the farmers to plan ahead of time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Lepheane said even the processes which are followed by farmers to get the inputs are too long and this discourages more farmers to take advantage of subsidized inputs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere should be one station where applications will be conducted,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Lesotho<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. THE government has injected a massive M102 million to subsidise farming inputs for the summer cropping season. This was announced by Minister of Finance, Dr Rets\u030celisitsoe Matlanyane, during her mid-term budget in parliament last Friday. The government will subsidise for seeds and pesticides to allow farmers to boost production. \u201cThis came as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":23126,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5,7],"tags":[233,246,245,163],"class_list":["post-23127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","category-head-lines","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-lesotho","tag-parliament"],"yoast_head":"\nM102 million to subsidise farming - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"THE government has injected a massive M102 million to subsidise farming inputs for the summer cropping season. 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