The Ministry of Agricultural Development and Food Security has informed the farming community that it will administer the Integrated Support Programme for Arable Agriculture Development (ISPAAD) for the last time during the 2021/2022 ploughing season.
The government recently announced that effective 2022/2023, the programme which was introduced in 2008, will be guided by new transformative guidelines.
Principal Agricultural Information and Public Relation Officer, Kebaetswe Molebatsi, says for this cropping season, subsistence farmers will be assisted with seeds for a maximum of four hectares per farmer.
Further, seeds provided to subsistence farmers will be for two hectares of hybrid seed and two hectares of open-pollinated seeds.
Molebatsi said subsistence farmers are to be provided with two bags of fertilizer per hectare for a maximum of four hectares.
Other major provisions for this cropping season are that farmers who have tested their soils will be assisted with fertilizers based on soils analysis results while fodder seeds will be provided at a 50 percent subsidy for a maximum of four hectares.
Commercial farmers, meanwhile, will be assisted with a 30 percent subsidy on the cost of seeds, fertilizers, and herbicides for a maximum area of 500 hectares.
During the transition period, the government has put on hold individual, group, and cluster fencing of arable farming areas for which payment has not yet been made as well as construction of new agricultural service centres.
