the monitor

Agriculture sector’s downtrend continues

Trying times: The El Nino phenomenon is expected to return this year, drying up the rain season and raising the occurrence of heat waves
Trying times: The El Nino phenomenon is expected to return this year, drying up the rain season and raising the occurrence of heat waves

Worries are mounting as Botswana’s agricultural sector continues to be buffeted by year in and year out crop and livestock failure rates, limiting its contribution to the economy.

Between its prime years as the country’s central economic activity, the contribution of agriculture to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has dropped from 40% in 1966 to just three percent last year.

GDP is a widely used measure of economic output and activity. While government has mounted sterling efforts to resuscitate the sector, these have been met with growing climate challenges.

Editor's Comment
The Boko-led administration has to tread carefully

‘When you make peace withyourself, you make peace with the world’- Maha GhosanandaThis may come at a huge cost if not handled properly. What started off on Labour Day in Letlhakane this year, where Boko was in attendance when the militant lawyer-cum-trade unionist, Robert Rabasimane rebutted the President’s address in defence of the trade union has seemingly spiralled out of control. The issue is now creating a cat-and-mouse type of a...

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