27 Oct 2025

Farmers have been implored to promote food sovereignty by ensuring sufficient food supply and reduction of the food import bill.

Speaking at a kgotla meeting held to review the 1991 Agricultural Development policy in Kanye on Friday, chief policy and research officer at the Ministry of Lands and Agriculture, Ms Lerato Sello urged farmers to transition from  subsistence farming to maximising commodity production and profit.

Ms Sello stated that in the endeavour to achieve food sovereignty, it was critical to ensure a farm was a productive investment through practising meticulous care for both fields and livestock.

She said farmers should be able to shape their food systems and define their food policies. Ms Sello stated that farming should be able to support and enhance economic growth. She called on farmers to value land, expressing concern that the youth sell land while they should instead lease it out in the event that they do not use it.

She said agriculture used to be the backbone of the local economy and contributed 40 per cent to the GDP, while the sector now contributes 1.7 per cent to the GDP. She said performance declined since 1987, which had necessitated the review of the policy to establish factors that could have contributed to such a development.

She stated that with ideas gathered from Batswana, the Agricultural Development Policy of 1991 was established and programmes such as ALDEP, ARAP, ISPAAD and Temo Letlotlo were developed in alignment with the policy.

She stated that the policy had since been obsolete, hence the need to review it as it has failed to address some of the challenges that came with global warming. She also expressed concern at the low participation of the youth in the sector, observing that farmers were mostly cases elderly members of society.

Ms Sello implored farmers to shift from food self-sufficiency to food security, raising concern that local farmers produced food locally but were not able to produce sufficient supply, compelling government to import.

She said the import bill bruised government coffers, adding that the idea therefore, was to ensure sufficient supply without importing.

When commenting, one of the farmers Mr Albert Lebalesirele proposed that government should divert funds which were being spent on seeds supplied to farmers to the Botswana Agricultural Marketing Board, and then increase the buying price for grains bought from farmers. That, he said, would empower farmers financially and put them in a position to improve agricultural production.

Mr Kentsenao Rutwane said crime escalation had defied their efforts to intensify agricultural production. He also attributed poor output in agricultural production to lack of good roads and mobile networks connectivity.

Ms Joyce Goletlegwang proposed that government should supply seeds only to farmers who produced high yields.

Member of Parliament for Kanye East Mr Mogorosi Mosanana informed farmers that with the financial constraints that government was faced with, the idea was to empower farmers and nudge them towards self-reliance. ENDS