Bad weather hampers ploughing in Botswana

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Climate change
climate change

A short rainfall season and a series of heat waves has affected grain farmers in Botswana for the 2014/2015 ploughing season, meteorology officials revealed this week. Climate change
In a press release on Thursday, senior meteorologist at the Department of Meteorological Services John Stegling said the country was affected by El Nino conditions that has resulted in the normal six months of the rainfall season shortening, thus affecting the ploughing season severely. Rainfall season in Botswana usually starts in October and ends in March the following year, a trend that changed with the current season.
Stegling said his department is still waiting for a report on how the El Nino conditions affected farmers, but said it was visible that the dry conditions will have a declining effect on agricultural yields.
According to him, Botswana has about 110,000 rain-fed grain farmers who mostly plough sorghum, millet and maize and majority of the crops ploughed this season were burned by extreme heat resulting in very little yields. Crop production in the southern African country is mainly dependent on rainfall with very little irrigation that covers just 3,000 hectares of land.
The country’s assistant Minister of Agriculture Patrick Ralotsia recently told the media that an audit into farms in the country has revealed that other crops are permanently damaged due to heat waves that engulfed the country. “Due to the unfavourable weather conditions it is anticipated that the present cropping season will be a difficult one compared to the previous season where we experienced some good showers that resulted in some bumper harvest for the country,” Ralotsia was quoted saying.
Botswana’s climate is semi-arid with most farming done along the eastern margin, which usually receives the highest rainfall in the country. Enditem

Source: Xinhua

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