Botswana Farmers' challenges

Having been raised by parents who have a keen interest in farm life I can understand the frustrations that small scale farmers endure at the hands of the profit chasing big businesses.

Since independence we have endeavoured to achieve many things, most of which we did but one of paramount importance is food self reliance which still continues to elude us.

So when an effort is made to produce food in Botswana I feel it is a step in the right direction.

Through many failed financial schemes our government has tried to build a diverse economy. Part of this was establishing a sound agricultural sector. You would be excused for thinking that after many trial and errors there would be some improved measures to ensure the success of newly introduced financial support programmes. This is however not the case.

Why does the government continue to give out loans without legislating to protect small enterprises from external giants? The reason that these people continue to stifle citizen empowerment is because they can. The legislation is not bullet proof and that is why it continues to be undermined. It is the duty of any responsible government to ensure that small businesses are protected from the unscrupulous behaviour that we see being flaunted by these chain stores. Government has long identified agriculture as a potential area of economic diversification and now the challenge for them is to make it work by including the 'small' people in money generating projects; and including them, means providing them with an atmosphere that gives stability and sustainability to their ventures. Our harsh climate particularly means that producers need maximum support from everybody.

I am all for fair competition but I'm also all for giving the ordinary man a chance, this unfortunately is not happening in Botswana. 

The financial schemes out there will never be able to address their objectives if the government does not get the basics right. It is no wonder that just a few years after its inception CEDA is projected to go broke. People cannot honour loan agreements if they are not making money, very simple.

In the case of the anonymous vegetable farmer how do the store managers explain the 200% mark-ups that they put on produce that they pay peanuts for. Again, where is the law to protect the consumer since there is none for the farmer. These people are obviously inflating their prices to pay for the numerous trips to buy the so-called 'fresh produce' from SA at the expense of local producers.

It is quite apparent from these events that these supermarkets have no regard for the well being of anybody within our borders. They are here to grab as much of the Pula as they possibly can without giving anything back. Social responsibility is not part of their business model and this is shameful to say the least. Well, I am without words as to why a citizen-owned company is also in the fray of such messy affairs. It remains an enigma to me why such is the case in our society. Tax-payers support these big businesses but they're unable to use their moral judgement to help support the people that support them, very sad.

Seima Dijeng
Brisbane,
AUSTRALIA