Zambezi Agro-Commercial project starts to take shape
Keikantse Lesemela | Wednesday January 15, 2014 16:09
Agriculture Hub director, Mmadima Nyathi has told Mmegi Business that negotiations with the consultant are scheduled to start this week. “We have not appointed anyone yet, but we have identified a consultant who will carry out feasibility studies for the project. We will be having our first meeting this week,” she said.
It is estimated that setting up the water infrastructure alone in the project will cost about $780 million (P6.9 billion). The project involves extraction of water from the Zambezi into 20,000 hectares of greenfield farming area in Kazungula. The second phase aims to pump the water to the Pandamatenga area to irrigate the current farms or the new farming area that will be created.
The project consists of two components: infrastructural development and the agro-commercial development. Government has previously said that through the project, it will develop agricultural production on a large commercial scale in the north of Botswana. This is meant to diversify economic activities and developing the agricultural sector to be a significant contributor to GDP. The project intends to encourage private investment in the agricultural industry and job creation.
Nyathi explained that infrastructure is a problem in the agriculture sector in Botswana. She said that although infrastructure exist in some areas, there is still a challenge of transport to production centres. She said government completed proposals for infrastructure development in 2010 but the international economic meltdown thwarted implementation.
“The economic meltdown hindered the implementation of this strategy but right now the government said they want to implement the strategy in phases because it requires a lot of money,” she explained. The strategy entails provision of roads, water, electricity and telecommunications in agriculture production areas.
The economy of Botswana was based on agriculture until 1967 when diamonds were discovered. Since then, the contribution of the agricultural sector to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has drastically declined from 40% in 1966 to three percent currently.
The Ministry of Agriculture has signed a Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of Botswana and the TAHAL Consultant Engineers, to facilitate negotiations for the development of the Zambezi Integrated Agro-Commercial Project which was approved through a cabinet directive in 2006.