Botswana’s commercial agriculture sector is still young and in a fast-developing phase, which means the country still has to develop its primary and secondary agriculture sectors. The Botswana government has identified agriculture as an area of strategic importance and as the sector with the best prospects for future development. The government is therefore seeking to attract private investment to grow the commercial farming sector and create employment opportunities for rural people.
BOTSWANA MUST INVEST IN INFRASTRUCTURE AND DIVERSIFY COMMODITY PRODUCTION TO ALTER THE TRADE IMBALANCE.
To this end, it has established a number of special economic zones, including the 50 000ha Pandamatenga dryland crop production area; beef and dairy in the Lobatse area, with the Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) export abattoir based there; the Selebi Phikwe irrigation scheme, fed by the Letsibogo and Shashe dams and focusing on citrus and vegetable production; and the Zambezi Integrated Agro-Commercial Development Project in northern Botswana, which will be a huge, commercial-scale irrigation project on 20 000ha.
This story is from the May 07, 2021 edition of Farmer's Weekly.
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This story is from the May 07, 2021 edition of Farmer's Weekly.
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