Botswana’s agricultural renewal and the investment opportunity it creates
GGOTHUSANG COBRA MOLATLHEGI* | Friday July 24, 2026 09:16
For decades, Botswana’s economic story has been written in diamonds. That narrative is now being rewritten in soil, seeds, and livestock. Agriculture, long described as underdeveloped relative to the country’s vast land endowment, is moving from the margins of national economic planning to its very centre, driven by a decisive policy shift and a government that has taken the decisive stand on making the sector work.
The numbers tell a frank story. Agriculture currently contributes less than 2% of GDP. The national food import bill reached P14.7 billion in 2024, up from P14.1 billion the year before. The national cattle herd has shrunk from more than 2.6 million head in 2010 to just above 1.1 million today, a structural decline that has eroded Botswana’s historic standing as a beef exporter. Unemployment sits at over 24%. Something has to change, and the Government has resolved that agriculture is a key part of that change.
The Botswana Investment and Trade Centre (BITC) shares that resolve. As Botswana’s official investment promotion and trade facilitation agency, BITC has identified agriculture as a strategic priority sector under the Botswana Economic Transformation Programme. Our mandate is clear: to connect capital with opportunity, and to help Botswana farmers and investors navigate a policy environment that is, for the first time in a generation, genuinely aligned with commercial agricultural ambition.
The new policy framework: A structural reset
At the heart of the current transformation is a comprehensive revision of the National Policy on Agricultural Development. The revised policy introduces an ambitious target: growing agriculture’s contribution to GDP from under 2 percent today to between 6 and 10 percent by 2029. That is not an incremental goal. It is a structural reset.
The policy is being built with the consideration of the following key areas: food and nutrition security, sustainable production aligned with ESG and the SDGs, agricultural diversification, economic diversification through job creation and investment, and the overarching vision of the Botswana Economic Transformation Programme. Crucially, it marks a formal shift in government philosophy, from food self-sufficiency as the primary goal to the broader, more achievable objective of food security, which accepts an appropriate level of strategic imports while driving domestic production in areas of competitive advantage.
The 2025 National Budget Speech reinforced this direction. Finance Minister Ndaba Gaolathe announced that the subsidy architecture would be revamped, moving from subsidising inputs to incentivising higher output and productivity. Cooperatives will receive a strengthened institutional and legal framework. The FAO has been engaged to develop a national agricultural financing strategy that introduces risk-sharing mechanisms to protect both financial institutions and smallholder farmers, creating safer pathways for private investment that simply did not exist before.
“A major shift will be revamping the agricultural subsidy system, moving from supporting inputs to incentivising higher output and productivity.”- Finance Minister Ndaba Gaolathe, 2025 National Budget Speech
Topical issues shaping the sector
Several issues are actively defining conversations in Botswana’s agricultural sector. Understanding them is essential for any farmer or investor serious about participating in the sector’s growth.
Food security vs. food self-sufficiency
The debate between food self-sufficiency and food security is not merely academic, it shapes where investment goes and which commodities attract government support. Botswana’s formal transition to a food security model acknowledges that the country cannot produce everything it consumes, but it must produce strategically to reduce import dependency in key categories: horticultural produce, grains, dairy, and protein. This creates commercially viable spaces for both large-scale operators and smallholder farmers who can meet domestic demand where imports currently dominate.
Cannabis and Industrial Hemp: A new economic frontier
One of the most significant recent developments in Botswana’s agricultural policy landscape is the passage of the Cannabis Bill, 2025, adopted by Parliament on 14 August 2025. The legislation legalises the cultivation and processing of industrial cannabis (with THC capped at 0.7%) and medicinal cannabis, strictly for medicinal, scientific, research, and industrial purposes. Recreational use remains prohibited.
President Advocate Duma Boko, who made the legalisation of medicinal cannabis and industrial hemp a feature of his inaugural State of the Nation Address in November 2024, has positioned the sector as a vehicle for economic diversification. Globally, the cannabis and hemp market is projected to grow from USD57billion in 2023 to USD444billion by 2030. Botswana’s favourable climate, available land, and affordable labour costs make it competitively positioned to participate in this value chain, particularly in hemp-based textiles, construction materials, pharmaceuticals, and agricultural inputs. Hemp trials are being piloted at the Botswana University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (BUAN), with a phased expansion to commercial farmers planned thereafter.
Climate-smart and precision agriculture
Botswana’s agricultural productivity challenge is compounded by an arid climate, erratic rainfall, and the mounting impacts of climate change. The revised policy explicitly addresses this by promoting precision farming, smart water management systems, soil enhancement technologies, and regenerative agriculture. For investors, this signals that climate-smart agricultural technology, including irrigation solutions, drought-resistant seed varieties, and digital farm management platforms, represents both a demand gap and a priority area for government support.
Where the opportunities lie
BITC has mapped the agricultural investment landscape across three broad categories, each supported by policy incentives and demonstrable market demand.
Livestock: Rebuilding Botswana’s competitive strength
Livestock remains the dominant sub-sector, contributing approximately 80% of agricultural GDP. Investment opportunities exist across beef production, dairy (where import substitution potential is substantial), small stock at scale, piggery, and fisheries. The shift from subsistence to commercial livestock operations is the central transition BITC is supporting, with opportunities for both Batswana entrepreneurs and strategic foreign investors.
Crop Production: Substituting imports and building export capacity
Large-scale cereal production (maize and wheat), horticulture, and the emerging cannabis and hemp sector are the priority crop investment areas. Botswana’s food import bill is a market that domestic producers can capture. Horticultural production in particular remains an immediate priority. The Government’s ban on the importation of certain fruits and vegetables creates guaranteed domestic demand, yet supply gaps persist, making this one of the most straightforward import-substitution investment opportunities on the continent.
Value addition and agri-services: The multiplier layer
Perhaps the most overlooked opportunity lies in the enabling ecosystem: food processing, feed processing, agro-chemicals, farming inputs and equipment, and precision agriculture services. The Government’s explicit commitment to linking agriculture with manufacturing, to create more value-added opportunities domestically, means that agri-services investors enter a sector in which they will find both public sector support and a captive upstream market of farmers who currently source inputs from outside Botswana.
BITC: Your partner in agricultural investment
For farmers looking to scale, and investors looking to enter, the question is no longer whether the policy environment supports agricultural growth, it does, more explicitly than at any time in recent history. The question is how to navigate it effectively.
BITC’s role is to make that navigation easier. Through our Business One-Stop-Service Centre (BOSSC), we assist investors with licensing, permitting, and regulatory compliance, reducing the time and friction that has historically deterred commercial agricultural investment in Botswana. We also facilitate introductions to land, infrastructure, financing partners, and Government incentive programmes, and we help Batswana businesses develop the export capacity to take Botswana-grown products to regional and global markets.
Botswana’s soil has long been underestimated. The policy is in place. The financing frameworks are being built. The market demand is real. The time to invest in Botswana agriculture is now, and BITC is ready to help you do it.
*Molatlhegi is BITC's Director, Investment Promotion