Vegetable farmers troubled by monkeys

Mme Masedi Boganne is a well known small scale vegetable farmer in Mmutlane. She has been exposed to farming from childhood as she used to farm with her parents. She has never worked anywhere else but has been eking out a living from farming. Speaking in an exclusive interview with this publication at her farm which is just adjacent Bonwapitse River along Mahalapye/ Kalamare tarred road, Boganne revealed that she has been a vegetable farmer since early 1990’s. Her parents who were passionate farmers managed to drill a borehole thus Boganne, seeking to take advantage of the availability of water decided to farm a variety of vegetables. She said that when she started it was just for consumption with her family. The continued demand from other people however, saw her shift from just farming for family consumption but now farmed for sale.
Ever since she made that transition, Boganne has never looked back once. She farms vegetables such as chomolia, spinach, rape, beetroots, tomatoes, and garlic among others. The wide variety of vegetables planted enables her to supply continuously throughout the year.
As she does not have enough funds to buy certain farming equipment such as drip irrigation system, Boganne has stuck to making the most of any available resources. She farms in a quarter of a hectare and has made plots which she waters using a watering can. For transport, she uses a donkey cart. She also plants seedlings in different containers and transplants them when they are mature for transplanting.
Her clientele include people from her village Mmutlane as well as surrounding areas such as Bonwapitse and Mahalapye.