11 Aug 2025

The Ministry of Lands and Agriculture owns a total of 76 farms for various purposes.

Answering a question in Parliament on Thursday, the acting Minister of Lands and Agriculture, Dr Edwin Dikoloti said these included veterinary quarantine camps, artificial insemination centres, livestock multiplication farms and Rural Training Centres.

He said the farms were not all in use, noting that the ministry had a total of 14 unused farms or camps under the Departments of Veterinary Services and Animal Production.

Furthermore, he said 20 farms under state land had expired leases and considerations for the lease renewals were underway.

The acting minister further said government had undertaken to unlock the economic value of all land parcels including government-owned farms.

This, he said, included leasing some unused government farms or using some of the farms to promote high value enterprises or initiatives such as dairy development or livestock holdings to facilitate breeding and marketing initiatives.

He said the ministry was determined to ensure that ordinary farmers, not privileged to own ranches, benefitted from the farms.

Dr Dikoloti added that the ministry would soon launch a transformative programmes, which would utilise some of the government farms to benefit communal farmers through improved animal production, compliance and farm quality assurance and access to high paying markets.The initiatives, he said would focus on enhancing breeding market support, ultimately boosting agricultural production and economic opportunities for farmers. So far, he said 21 farms from the three departments and 75 under state land are leased to investors, either through competitive bidders or directly to investors as recommended by investment facilitation urgencies like the Botswana Investment Trade Centre and any other appropriate government structure.

He was responding to a question from the MP for Thamaga-Kumakwane, Mr Palelo Motaosane, who had asked the minister the number of farms owned by government, if they were all in use, if so, whether they were all used to full capacity as well as whether the government would consider leasing those farms to farmers in communal areas. ENDS