NDB Wants More Women In Agric Revolution
Pauline Dikuelo | Monday August 24, 2020 12:24
This is in line with their Letsema 2019-2020 strategy. The strategy focuses on four national priorities being food security or reduction of the food import bill, Small and Medium Enterprises growth, job creation, youth participation in business, particularly agriculture.
NDB last Thursday held a conference for women in leadership under the theme ‘sustainable agriculture for a better Botswana-Growing a sustainable, healthy and resilient agricultural sector’.
The bank’s chief executive officer, Lorato Morapedi said through the two-day conference they wanted to present both business and leadership to dialogue and share information on key emerging issues, network and also form strategic alliances that will assist them grow in their businesses or career advancement.
“Women comprise about 40% of the labour force in agriculture in the developing world. You find women across the agricultural spectrum. They are commercial farmers, processors, entrepreneurs, scientists and policy makers,” she said.
NDB recently launched P50 million Agriculture Business Stimulus Fund which is aimed at stimulating and catalysing agricultural businesses. The Fund seeks to cultivate the niche sectors like cereal production, horticulture, small stock, beef production and poultry as well as the value chain focus of agro-processing and supporting services.
“We have worked with Pandamatenga farmers right from infancy, transforming them from ploughing with small tractors to now producing in large scale. I was impressed to tell you that some women were part of this,” Morapedi said.
According to the CEO, there are abundant opportunities in the agricultural space, especially in support services, which just await people to tap into. In addition she called for partnerships amongst farmers, noting that collectively they can contribute to food sustainability.
Speaking at the same event, assistant Minister of Agricultural Development and Food Security, Beauty Manake said government has started building an economic recovery plan that has vast agricultural opportunities.
“Post COVID-19, we have started building resilience as a country, and have come up with an economic recovery plan which will close gaps that exist in the sector. We want to come up with solutions that can build capacity within our farmers and empower them,” he said.
“I urge Batswana to use what we have locally to our advantage. I know agricultural financing remains the biggest challenge for farmers, but as a ministry we are in talks with other relevant ministries to find ways to working together to reduce the import bill,” she said.