11 Dec 2017

Agriculture is a source of livelihood for 86 per cent of the rural people in the world and provides jobs for 1.3 billion small holders and landless workers, says Assistant Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry, Mr Biggie Butale.

Mr Butale was speaking at the Shoshong Investment Promotion Show in Shoshong on December 9, under the theme: 'Economic diversification and poverty eradication through agriculture and other businesses.'

He said the rural poor depended directly or indirectly on agriculture for their livelihoods, and that a more dynamic and inclusive agricultural sector could reduce rural poverty.

He explained that agriculture also helped countries meet their development objectives, attain food security and eradicate poverty.

Mr Butale noted that countries with high agricultural output have experienced a reduction in poverty, citing Ghana as an example of a country that has experienced a 24 per cent reduction in rural poverty over 15 years due to a strong agricultural performance.

Mr Butale commended the Shoshong constituency for having  developed a blueprint for attracting investors, and identifying various engines of growth suitable for their constituency such as education, agriculture, tourism, and manufacturing.

He said the sectors have also been identified within the country's priorities on economic diversification and employment creation.

He said while investment decisions were not made overnight and could take long, he believed that with what they were doing in Shoshong they would soon bear the fruit of their labour.

He said time was now ripe following their marketing initiatives to develop tangible projects along some of their key sectors, especially agriculture.

Mr Butale said the theme was a clear indication of a shared vision on agricultural development and its potential.

He noted that the Western Sandveldt farms played a pivotal role within the beef production sector.

He advised them to leverage on that and to develop business clusters along the beef value chain.

He also noted that  various programmes already in existence  such as the youth and women cooperatives targeting feed production, transportation, dairy production and livestock medicine and meat processing were in existence.

Mr Butale also said with ISPAAD and the abundance of land in their constituency, arable farming could  become a catalyst and ensure food security and sustainable livelihoods through the sale of farm products.

He applauded the investment promotion committee, the area MP and constituency leadership for embarking on an journey which required all to put their hands together.

He said the ministry remained ready to facilitate their plans in building investor confidence and setting up industries in their constituency.

For his part, the area MP, Mr Dikgang Makgalemele said their journey started in 2010 when they decided to have a constituency investment promotion committee to lure investors to their constituency.

He noted that Shoshong used to be an area of trade in the 18th century, and that it was a stop over for travellers, hunters and missionaries.

Mr Makgalemele also said the show was in its sixth year, and that they had so far managed to have relationships with many investors and countries, including Nigeria, China and India.

 He said the main objective of the show was to market the constituency and attract investors more so that most of the villages in their constituency were easily accessible because of the tarred road, and that their produce would quickly reach the market.

Mr Makgalemele said they also wanted to help investors from their constituency to reach bigger markets in and outside Botswana  as well as bring investors from outside Botswana to the constituency as they had a lot of investment opportunities. ENDS