27 Dec 2012

While most people were preparing food for Christmas festivities in the mornings, some spent the early morning either tending to their crops or harvesting morogo wa dinawa (relish).

The agricultural sector in Botswana still provided the largest amount of basic livelihoods for a large majority of the population. This was so because most of the country’s population lived in the rural parts of the country and were dependent on crop production and livestock farming.

This inclination towards subsistence agriculture had been the reason why Ms Bobby Cornelius and her daughter in law, Ms Dinah Chalashika of Natale opted to start their Christmas Day festivities by giving attention to their fields before joining other family members for feasting.

Explaining her choices, Ms Cornelius said that she ploughed on November 20. She was benefitted from the ISPAAD programme but said  last year, due to insufficient rains, she got only two bags of sorghum from her three hectares.

“In a good year, the same hectares can give me 20 bags,” she noted. She explained that the reason why they went to the fields early in the mornings was because the birds were usually active in the mornings and ate leguminous crops.

This, she mentioned, would undercut her profit margins as she had to harvest some beans for consumption while the surplus was sold. Ms Cornelius also explained that Christmas was only for one day and if she left her crops to focus on the activities of the day, she would be left with no livelihood after December 25 which could have a negative economic impact on her family’s well-being for the whole year, hence the need to strike a balance.

She also highlighted that on a good year, she could harvest enough food to feed her family for the whole year while only buying some foodstuffs to supplement produce from her field. However, she decried the fact that during Christmas, children were not willing to come and help parents at the fields as they focused their attention on football tournaments which took most of their time.

“As you can see, it is only the two of us who have come here, the children cannot agree to leave their ball sports to come and assists us,” she said. However, she explained that Christmas was an important day that should be celebrated by families who did not normally spend time together during the year owing to work commitments. ENDS