Pandamatenga farmers raise funding alarm as season approaches

Mbongeni Mguni | Wednesday November 12, 2025 14:51

All signs are that the country will enjoy bountiful rains this year, good news to the more than 90% of farmers in the country who depend on the benevolence of the skies for their livelihoods.

However, at the Pandamatenga commercial farms, the hub of the country’s agricultural production and hopes for food security, confidence is running low ahead of the rainy season.

With about 40,000 hectares of prime black cotton soil, the largest single area of that type in the country, the Pandamatenga commercial agriculture area is an arable farming paradise.

Ahead of the rains, the Pandamatenga Commercial Farmers Association (PCFA) says since April, farmers have produced an estimated 120,000 tonnes of assorted grains - including more than 80,000 tonnes of sorghum. Over 53,000 tonnes of sorghum, 3,000 tonnes of cowpeas, and 2,000 tonnes of maize were delivered in good faith to the Botswana Agricultural Marketing Board and an estimated P260 million to P300 million remain unpaid to date, farmers say.

The Association’s CEO, Lilian Costa Scheepers, says the amounts could be higher since official volumes are not disclosed. In addition, suppliers who supported the Temo Letlotlo inputs programme are also waiting for their payments.

“The crisis is stark,” she told Mmegi this week. “This is no longer a warning. It is a plea: grain farmers across Botswana must be paid immediately by the BAMB.”

Scheepers said because of the unpaid invoices, farmers could not plant and were unprepared for the season.

“The rainy season has arrived, yet farmers cannot even think about planting. “With no cash, and no support, there is now a real risk that for the first time in history, Botswana may not plant the 2025-2026 crops. “The consequences are unthinkable: collapsing farm operations, mass job losses, and a shattered agricultural sector,” she said.

By law, BAMB is the country’s primary buyer of agricultural produce, providing a market for locally grown scheduled crops while ensuring that adequate supplies exist for sale to customers. BAMB also manages the Strategic Grain Reserve (SGR), buying crops and taking responsibility for their storage until they are needed to make up for shortfalls in the economy.

Well ahead of each season, BAMB enters into contracts with farmers, guaranteeing the organisation of supplies and assuring the farmer of a market and price. According to BAMB, these contracts help farmers “project whether they will make profit or not basing on the yields expected and the price offered”.

While the marketing board is yet to comment on the farmers’ grievances, as a state-run entity it is exposed to the broader fiscal brunch facing government. In its 2021 annual report, BAMB said under the contracts, farmers are paid within “30 days or less” upon delivery, a promise those in Pandamatenga say is not being honoured.

“BAMB does not have money and is having serious challenges in finding funds to honour the outstanding payables to farmers and suppliers,” Scheepers told Mmegi.

The commercial farmers say they have made several proposals to government on boosting BAMB’s financial stability.

'For a long time, the farming community has been warning the government of BAMB’s financial instability and, went to great lengths to support the search for alternative funding,” farmers said in correspondence to government recently. “This included mobilising stakeholders, proposing joint financing models with local banks, and facilitating partnerships with collateral managers, and even finding outside markets for the excess grain stock, volumes above the Strategic Grain Reserve, to generate quick cashflow to BAMB. “Despite these efforts, and despite farmers honouring their delivery contracts, a solution to secure funds for BAMB has not been found to date, because, at the end of the day, BAMB’s difficulties are rooted in long-standing operational inefficiencies, not in the actions of farmers.'

Scheepers said the delay in payments was not only jeopardising the upcoming cropping season, but also impacting adversely on farming as a business in the economy.

“Farming is not just another business. It is high-risk, capital-intensive, and already starved of affordable credit in Botswana. “Farmers have been keeping their operations alive through expensive overdrafts - as high as prime + 9% interest. “They are paying workers, fuelling tractors, and moving grain, but their own pockets are empty, while the only players who are winning big from this chaos are the banks through the penalties and interests charges that they never stop or decrease,” she said.

Small-scale farmers are stranded without cash or clear guidance on how the Temo Letlotlo programme will continue, so they can start planting the next crop, she said. Meanwhile, large-scale farmers, who anchor national production, are reaching breaking point under crushing debts and many are reaching the point of bankruptcy across the country.

“There are many farmers who do not have access to credit from the National Development Bank or CEDA - they rely entirely on cash to keep farming, so receiving payments from BAMB is critical - and those ones are already out of business. “When a farmer does not receive payments, the entire value chain is deeply impacted - if farmers do not produce sorghum next year - the next businesses to fall will be the traditional small milling businesses,” Scheepers said.

In Parliament last month, Lands and Agriculture minister, Edwin Dikoloti, said BAMB was undergoing a strategic turnaround which includes modernising infrastructure, expanding storage capacity, introducing digital supply systems and promoting value addition.

“Central to its success is improved governance, climate resilient sourcing, timely farmer payments and effective implementation of the BAMB Act to enhance its role as a reliable national grain aggregator and trade facilitator,” he said, when presenting on the NDP 12 deliberations for the Ministry.

For the commercial farmers, action is needed now.

“Botswana cannot afford to watch its grain sector collapse,” Scheepers said. “Rainfed farmers cannot have the luxury of missing out a potential good rainy season, so urgent financing must be secured now - whether through government, banks, or emergency measures - to pay farmers and suppliers without any further delay.”