09 Jun 2014

The agricultural shows can run both professionally and businesslike if taken over by the private sector, the agricultural hub coordinator, Mr Edmont Moabi has said.

Speaking at the agricultural show sponsorship breakfast meeting on June 6, Mr Moabi said government required the private sector’s effort to develop agricultural shows to achieve the potential they had.

He said, “if we achieve it properly we should be able to contribute to the socio-economic development of our country, as well as the agricultural sector as a whole.”

The Ministry of Agriculture, Mr Moabi said, had been responsible for managing agricultural shows at both district and national level since their inception. Therefore, he said it was the intention of the ministry that the running of the show should be gradually handed over to the private sector.

This, he said included the various key stakeholders such as farmers’ organisations, financial institutions and other business entities. As in any effort of development, he said agricultural shows had the potential to meaningfully contribute to the socio-economic development of the country.

For that reason, he said government required the private sector’s participation in a Public Private Partnership or such similar manner. “Given the economic challenges we are currently facing in the ministry, we believe that the private sector will assist in shaping the show ground’s development direction,” he added.

Mr Moabi said the agricultural show should continuously generate income and create business for farmers and employment for Botswana. He appealed to the private sector to generously contribute to the development of the show ground, in particular, so that the ministry could develop a world class facility that would attract potential international investors.

To attain this noble objective, he said the showground had to be designed by experts who would ensure that it reflected a vision beyond 2016. He said whilst the ministry appreciated the important role that farmers and private sector had played over the years, there was a lot of room for further cooperation. “Our vision is to develop a facility that would enjoy and provide continuous daily services throughout the year.

In other words this show ground would have to accommodate facilities such as garden, parks, restaurant, conference centre, professional horse track, motel and many more,” he said. The meeting that was organised by the National Agricultural Show Committee was meant to take stock of the resources at hand for purposes of running the annual agricultural show.

In addition, the event was also meant to raise funds for both the show prizes and development of the show ground. In pursuit of this noble cause, Mr Moabi appealed to the private sector and partners to fully participate in the gesture for the benefit of future agricultural shows .ENDS