Botswana meets only 6% of milk demand
Patricia Edwin | Wednesday August 27, 2014 12:49
This was disclosed at the recently ended Francistown Investment Forum (FIF2014) held in Francistown by Baitshepi Bathusi-Hill of the Agriculture Hub.
Speaking on ‘Models & Strategies of Investing in Agriculture within the greater Francistown: Possibilities of contract farming by private sector with the local community for technical and market support’, Bathusi-Hill noted that only six percent of the national demand is met.
“This is because we have inadequate dairy breeds and inadequate knowledge, high cost of feed and unavailability of land for dairy farming,” she said.
Bathusi-Hill said that there is an increase in the number of dairy projects and use of artificial insemination and modern technologies of breeding such as sexed semen, technology transfer, production of feed from arable operations and setting aside suitable land for dairy production. Bathusi-Hill said Botswana’s demand for fruits and vegetables is 75, 000 tonnes, while the country’s domestic production is only 40 percent of the figure.She added that the country needs to import 95, 000 tonnes, while the vegetables and fruits that have to be imported are 95, 000 tonnes.
“Agriculture is the mainstay of livelihoods of Batswana as far as food, employment and income are concerned.
“The sector is dualistic, consisting of both traditional and commercial farmers.
“The main differences here are; land tenure, use of technology and marketing of agricultural outputs and low levels of agro-processing and value addition plants to agricultural produce,” she said.
Other things that the country falls short of producing are; pork and maize which the country demands 221, 000 tonnes of, but can only produce 21, 560 tonnes.
Botswana produces 51, 647 tonnes of sorghum, while the country demands 96, 000 tonnes, Bathusi-Hill said.