According to a policy statement on NDP12 delivered to the National Assembly recently by the Minister of Lands and Agriculture, Dr Edwin Dikoloti, the new plan aims to position agriculture as a central pillar of the economy, declaring that a new era of innovation, resilience, and value creation has begun.
“We aim to transform the country’s agriculture into a diversified, resilient, and export-oriented sector that achieves food security, reduces imports, and drives economic growth,” he stated. He explained that the plan moves Botswana away from subsidy-driven dependency toward enterprise-driven empowerment, emphasising that the transformation is not merely a policy aspiration, but it is a moral and economic imperative. "The approach under NDP12 is not simply to seek funds but to build confidence and foster new partnerships in agricultural development. Under NDP12, the agriculture sector is guided by a 'Three-Set Thinking Approach': change management, productivity transformation, and increasing the sector’s economic contribution. This includes growing the national cattle herd to 5 million, raising agriculture’s GDP share from 1.7 percent to between six percent to 10%, and promoting science-based production systems," he said. Dr Dikoloti highlighted key enablers, including major policy and legal reforms, new financing and insurance models, and greater support for research and development through institutions such as the National Agricultural Research and Development Institute (NARDI), the Botswana University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (BUAN), and the Botswana Vaccine Institute (BVI).
