05 Mar 2026

For a long time, rural areas were viewed through the lens of provision of social welfare programmes but, the National Development Plan 12 is about to change the narrative as government shifts from social welfare dependency to productive empowerment.

This was said by the Vice President, Mr Ndaba Gaolathe during the official opening of the 169^th Rural Development Council (RDC) in Gaborone yesterday.

Mr Gaolathe said the RDC was the architect of rural progress against the background of socio-economic transformation of Botswana, with a special focus on rural development.

“As I indicated in 2026/27 Budget Speech, our True North is a high-income Botswana that is digitally enabled and export-driven. But let us be candid. We cannot reach a high-income status if our rural communities are left behind in a low-income cycle,” said Mr Gaolathe.

Furthermore, he noted that Botswana Economic Transformation Programme (BETP) was the ‘engine room’ of the delivery in the rural development space.

He thus pleaded with the RDC to be the driver of the BTEP and ensure that the 186 high impact projects identified in the national budget were felt on the ground.

“Under BETP, we are implementing 26 agriculture cluster projects. We are no longer just farming for the pot, we are farming for the world. This includes the commercialisation of livestock and the introduction of high-value crops such as industrial hemp and medicinal cannabis,” he said.

He said farmers had for long been battling with low yields, high input costs, and a lack of market access thus the 2026 budget provided the interventions to break the cycle.

“For example, through the power of clustering under the BETP, we are moving away from fragmented, isolated farming. We are implementing 26 dedicated agricultural cluster projects nationwide. These clusters will turn local villages into "Agro-Industrial Zones,” shifting the focus from subsistence to surplus for export,” he said.

Another radical reform advocated in the budget, was the introduction of the Botswana Mercantile Exchange which would for the first time enable rural producers to have access to a transparent, market based pricing system.

Government had through the NDP 12 taken a bold move toward diversification and officially enabled the regulated cultivation of industrial hemp and medicinal cannabis.

“This is not just about farming; it is about the pharmaceutical value chain development. We want the processing labs and the manufacturing of hemp-based products to happen in our rural areas, creating high-tech jobs for our youth where they live,” said Mr Gaolathe.

He said government was also committed to the rural digital revolution through the 1Gov1Citizen platform and the National Digital ID system, citing that through the initiative, a citizen in Gumare or Tsabong would no longer need to travel to Gaborone for government services as digitalisation was the bridge that eliminated the distance tax paid by rural citizens.

With regard to infrastructure provision, Mr Gaolathe said the P3.86 billion allocated to Transport and Infrastructure during the 2006/2027 national budget proposal was to improve the national roads network, that would also connect the rural production centers to regional markets, transforming Botswana into a true SADC logistics hub.

These specific reforms under NDP 12 and the BETP represent a fundamental shift in how rural Botswana would produce and trade. ENDS