BUAN Students Assemble a Tractor
Main Photo by BOPA
Officially launching the tractor at the Botswana University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (BUAN) campus in Sebele, Gaborone, the Presidnt said Bhero, assembled by BUAN engineering students would go a long way towards promoting food production.
The development of the locally assembled Bhero (pronounced “Be Hero”) tractors is a positive step towards achieving food security, President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi has said.
“Food security is at the top of our national development agenda and therefore, the assembling of tractors in Botswana will take this country this far in terms of food production and competitiveness,” President Masisi said.
He commended African Agriculture, the locally based agribusiness equipment company that donated the tractor parts assembled by the BUAN students, for their role in promoting locally manufactured products.
“It is also important to note that African Agriculture is also modifying implements for these tractors locally. These implements are specially adapted to the Botswana environment. This is a very welcome development as it is in line with smart agricultural practices to mitigate the effects of climate change. I am informed that African Agriculture will assemble more than 200 tractors annually once they start their full production,” Dr Masisi said.
He added that job creation, skills transfer and the diversification of the economy are some of the benefits that would accrue from such assembling of tractors.
The President reiterated government’s continued effort to facilitate the ease of doing business for domestic and foreign investors, and said that with the increase of the assembling of such tractors in Botswana would eventually lead to export to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) market.
He also told the launch that government was working on introducing a new cost effective agricultural programme that would address low productivity and maximize arable land use.
Acting Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Ms Beauty Manake said the country would benefit from improved skill competency of graduates from partnership such as that of BUAN and African Agriculture.
“We encourage BUAN and African Agriculture to formalize this arrangement into a fully fledged graduate development programme to ensure more graduates leave the university with more skill and knowledge,” Ms Manake stated.
She added that such assembling of tractors locally was a major step that would likely reduce the cost of tractor prices, making them affordable for local farmers.
