Africa-Press – Botswana. Statistics has revealed that the agriculture sector which at independence accounted to 40 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), has with time lost its dominance reaching a low 1.7 per cent in 2024.
Speaking at a joint consultation meeting conducted by Botswana Institute for Development Policy Analysis (BIDPA) on agriculture sector productivity for Ghanzi and Charles Hill districts farmers recently, a researcher Dr Raymond Lekobane said such drastic fall was propelled by rapid growth of other economic sectors particular mining, hence agriculture experienced stagnant growth while all other economic sectors thrived.
He therefore, said government moved to formulate policies aiming to increase agricultural production and productivity by creating programmes and initiatives geared at promoting adoption of new technologies. Dr Lekobane said despite such efforts, the sector was still characterised by low adaptation of improved technologies such as row planting and fertilizers and low productivity levels continued to persist. He also noted that in rain fed arable crop yields were less than 200kg/ha compared to neighbouring countries such as South Africa and Zimbabwe.
Further, Dr Lekobane said livestock industry also experienced decline in performance overtime. In the mid 1970s beef and by-products accounted for 40 per cent of Botswana’s commodity exports, but during 2020 the share of beef and its by-products exports plummeted to one per cent, he said. Dr Lekobane said such decline affected the production and increased domestic demand for beef locally, which reduced the supply of cattle for export market. He said other contributing factors included, declining birth rates for both cattle and small stock, mortalities that exceeded cattle sales from 5.9 per cent in 2017 to 10.9 per cent in 2019.
Giving the objectives of the consultation meeting, director of productivity and competitiveness from the Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs, Mr Bonnie Jim said with the challenges of declining levels of productivity of the sector, the ministry adopted a sectoral approach to investigate and solve the agricultural sector pertaining issues. He said they would investigate the performance and productivity levels of the agricultural sector and its sub-sectors, establish current levels of productivity in areas of labour, capital, land utilisation and reacted efficiencies and entrepreneurship across the sector.
Mr Jim said the agriculture sector was prioritised due to its significance to support other sectors of the economy and because of its potential to creating job opportunities across its value chains. He added that many of citizens participated in this sector, making it more viable despite the challenges associated with it.
“It also has the potential to reduce poverty at all levels,” he added.
Ghanzi District Council Chairperson, Mr Thabiso Kebadile said consultations would inform farmers to ponder extensively on issues affecting the agricultural sector with one voice and be able to provide possible solutions contributing to the resuscitation of the sector. He said agricultural sector was the leading source of employment, food, and income to name a few for many, but due to various reasons such as climate change and the adoption of mining, the sector collapsed.
He therefore, implored farmers to impart knowledge to the young generation so that the sector would not face stagnation in the future. Mr Kebadile also implored policy makers to adopt holistic approaches and avoid one size fits all policies in order to rescue the ailing sector. For their part, farmers proposed for the review of agricultural policies, ease of financial assistance, intensive education for both farmers and farm workers, land allocation policy, viable programmes, review cattle pricing, and liberalisation of Botswana Meat Commission.
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