19 May 2021

Assistant Minister of Agricultural Development and Food Security, Ms Beauty Manake has challenged stakeholders to play their in positioning Botswana in the international citrus market.

In an interview after her visit of several citrus plantations across the area, Ms Manake said the country exhibited signs of strength in citrus production. She added that there was need to capacitate the sector through the whole ecosystem.

To successfully position Botswana in the international citrus market, the assistant Minister said there was need to build a strong foundation and close identified gaps because plantation and production alone were not enough.

She said if necessities such as electricity remained high, farmers would not win in a continent abound with opportunities.

“Southern Africa should be the one feeding the world, but we are importing about P514 billion (US$ 48 billion) worth of food into Africa. We are wasting P428 billion (US$ 40 billion) of food because we don’t have post-harvest technology,” Ms Manake said.

The assistant minister said Africa was tipped to be the next producer of food, and that Africa really meant Southern Africa because the region had flat lands, good soils and plenty of underground water in some areas.

“We have to reposition ourselves better and see where the gaps and opportunities are so we could actually maximise,” she said.

Ms Manake said Botswana needed, amongst other things, a fruit tree nursery.

The nursery, she said, would help lower production costs so that local prices would not frustrate exportation of the produce.

She said high prices would dwarf the country’s comparative advantage against big citrus producers such as Brazil and South Africa. 

 “If a disease was to erupt in South Africa we are going to close the borders, and what we will lose is an opportunity for our farmers because there will be delays in their projects since they will not be able to import seedlings,” Ms Manake said.

She also cited the need to produce, not only fruit tree seedlings, but also fertilizers and pesticides adapted to local soils. 

She noted that the country has always imported fertilisers and pesticides.

“Even how we manage our soils should be sustainable. Our grandchildren should be able to plough and plant in the same land,” Ms Manake said, adding that currently farmers were just buying and utilising without caring for the soil.

The assistant minister said it was time the country had manufacturers who were focusing on organic fertilisers that could complement local soils.

She said another factor that called for locally produced fertilisers and pesticides was the distinction between  locally produced oranges and those from South Africa, “and so are diseases and pests we have here.”

The findings, the assistant minister said, were born from research carried locally. 

She said a report would be handed to BITC and BDC in order to find people who could bring laboratories that would manufacture the pesticides.

Quizzed about availability of land and water for production, Ms Manake said the response from the Ministry of Land Management, Water and Sanitation Services was that they have over-allocated agricultural land across the country. ends