Floods leave Glen Valley farm P150 000 poorer (19 January, 2006)

GABORONE - The recent rains that caused floods in various parts of Gaborone and surrounding areas have left a Glen Valley farm P150 000 poorer.

Greenland Agricultural Productions and Consultancys Managing Director Moses Phuti told BOPA that six out of seven tunnels of planted tomatoes and greenpepper were under water.
Phuti said the water took three days to dry up, killing plants worth P150 000 that were maturing.

He said the farm had a continuous plan, which is a 12-month cycle, of nurturing and harvesting the same crops, saying now that the crops were dead there was no choice but to plant again.
However, the CEDA-funded project was not experiencing the problem for the first time.

Since our first crop of September 2005, we have had few floods, especially during the December rains, but they were not as severe as the ones we experienced recently.

Phuti explained that their farm submerged even when it had not rained in their area, adding that when the Segoditswane River floods, its waters flow straight to the farm.

He said lands and housing minister Dikgakgamatso Seretse, whose ministry is the leasser, had inspected the damages and sympathised with them.

Phuti said they were expecting a visit from the ministry officials who had promised to find some permanent solution to the problem.

In addition, he said, they were not only concerned about the damages, but the market as well. He said the farms ambition was to stop vegetable imports into the country.

Currently, he said, the farms main customers were street vendors. We want to overcome the low quality tomato imports that come into our country, he said.

We have therefore, as farmers, decided to group ourselves to beat the imports.

Boago Moganani, the chief land utilisation officer at the Ministry of Agriculture, said the ministry was working with the farm to find a solution to the flooding problem.

He said the aim was to promote agricultural production in Botswana. Moganani said the land on which Greenland Agricultural Productions is located was fertile but was unfortunate that it was threatened by the recurring floods.

He said the ministry was waiting for the land to dry before carrying out a detailed survey on how best to channel flood water.

Greenland Agricultural Productions and Consultancy is one of the 47 Glen Valley horticultural farms serviced under NAMPAADD and is located on a low land near Segoditswane River.
The company has spent more than P800 000 on construction and crop production. BOPA