Local farmers to our rescue
THE recent protest action in the country and South Africa enabled the halt of deliveries. Food supply was among those and reports stated t hat a food shortage was looming.
But as much as the protest was crippling to external food supplies, we still have our farmers who are relentless.
Those who don’t practise agriculture and rely on the shops could make use of the local farmers. These can be easily found on Facebook as they mostly advertise there. Interestingly enough, several farmers open up roadside stalls where they can sell their fresh products. And almost everywhere you go, there is a road market where the women sell products sourced from local farmers.
NAMBoard Chief Executive Of i cer Siphephiso Dlamini has assured the nation that supply of vegetables is expected to be consistent. This is because local farmers have shown tremendous zeal and determination to produce enough for the local market.
PRODUCE
Several farmers revealed that their aim is to produce enough to feed the nation, it may not happen overnight, but with consistent baby steps and a little bit of patience. And they said, what helps them to be relevant with the market is to follow closely on the agricultural parastatal organisations advice on which crops are on a market gap and ill that gap.
For instance, recently NAMBoard invited the farmers to produce tomato, green pepper, cabbage, broccoli, cauli lower, spinach and lettuce – they confessed they are looking forward to this.
Women Farmers Foundation Sales Of icer Sanele Mtsetfwa stated that he was optimistic about the farmers in the country and their capability. “So far our farmers have proven reliable to produce vegetables in abundance these include cabbage, spinach, tomatoes and baby marrow etc,” he said.
The next big thing, he said, was dried maize. The women farmers have proven to be dedicated to produce more than enough. The maize is then sold to NMC as they buy in bulk. Indigenous chickens and sweet potatoes, he said, are the other things that they produce. Though, it is not yet at large scale but they are getting there. So Dlamini wasn’t so far- fetched when he said spinach, lettuce and probably tomatoes will not be affected. He explained that this was because these are dominantly produced locally. The local farmers have proven capable of sustaining the local market with these products, hence no need to panic as they have got this covered.
FARMERS
Indeed, as I was going through my social media I kept coming across farmers who produce lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, beans and maize. It seems the local farmers are working tirelessly to produce. It might be at a smaller scale or larger but its de initely welcome efforts. In my interviews with several farmers, they complain that they do not have access to machinery that does things effectively. National Maize Cooperation ( NMC) Chief Executive Of icer Rechi Dlamini revealed that the
Ministry of Agriculture has an Input Subsidy and Tractor Hire Programme. This allows farmers to have easy access to agricultural machinery. “The tractor hire charges E250 per hour. You can pay at EswatiniBank or Eswatini Post, the sum will depend on the number of hours you need. Then, you have to take the slip to your local RDA of ices.”
Farmers are encouraged to make use of this programme, as it is affordable.
Through these interventions, farmers are encouraged to grow different grains based on their climatic conditions. “With assistance from FAO, we started an initiative to grow winter crops especially in places that are warm in winter such as the Lowveld.”
Here, it is important to keep up with the food crop calendar as it will be a good guide on which crops you can plant that are suitable in that region at that speci ic season.