Lack of policy stifles horticulture sector � study
Isaac Pinielo | Friday October 7, 2016 16:25
The study was conducted in the framework of the Private Sector Development Programme (PSDP) with the aim to identify bottlenecks and constraints in the horticultural sector value chain. According to the study, horticulture contributed P857 million, or around 30% of agricultural output in 2013.
Production is dominated by cabbage, tomato, potato and oranges, which together account for 60% of tonnage. On the other hand, 83% of the 2,096 hectares of land cultivated for horticulture is used for producing vegetables.
Botswana accounted for 0.6% of the world’s vegetables imports and 0.2% of the world’s fruits imports in 2013. In the same year, 39,800 tonnes of vegetables were imported, valued at $22.6 million (P237.5m).
“The lack of a national horticulture policy acts as a barrier to developing effective support programmes for this sector,” the study says.
The study states that the sector is dominated by small, unprofitable farmers, who lack the resources to invest in modern farming technology. There is limited cooperation between farmers to coordinate production or group for marketing or purchasing. The study says seasonality and large fluctuations of supplies leads to large variation in prices and wastage.
Some areas of concern include the lack of quality grading and sorting, which the study says contribute to pricing pressure on fresh fruit and vegetable outputs.
“Almost 50% of land allocated to horticulture remains unutilised, reducing production potential. Ownership by part-time farmers reduces farm performance,” says the study.
It states that fresh fruit and vegetable production is heavily dependent on unskilled farmers who move to farming because they have no other source of employment.
“Farmers seek short-term returns in preference to long-term investment. Lack of modern technology restricts the opportunity to expand the range and volume of fresh fruit and vegetables produced,” it says.
According to the study, there are inadequate post-harvest handling facilities as well as a lack of secondary processing capacity for fresh fruit and vegetables. In addition, the study indicates that fresh fruit and vegetables produced are very limited in range and that the significant majority of farmers, especially small and medium-sized ones, lack farming skills.
“Record-keeping and financial management at farm level is often inadequate,” says the study. Other features of the value chain that the study identified are that inputs such as seeds, pesticides and fertilisers are almost entirely imported from South Africa.
“The value chain analysis suggests that Botswana input prices are on average 26% higher than those prevailing in South Africa,” it says.
As of March 2014, there were 649 active farms in the country. Twenty-six of these were over 10 hectares in area and accounted for 43% of land under cultivation. At the other extreme, 141 farms had less than one hectare and accounted for only three percent of land under cultivation.
The Ministry of Agricultural Development and Food Security estimates suggest that over 90% of farms are owned by farmers who are part-time. The central district accounts for 40% of all farms in the country.