Though increases in food prices have hit all budgets, it's the poor who bear the brunt of price inflation. Growing food crisis is forcing poor families to spend more of their household budgets on food, leaving little for anything else. The more the food prices rise, the more people will be plunged into hunger and poverty. Food shortages have affected developing countries for generations. It's a cyclical problem. But the current food crisis is more rapid, urgent and devastating. Since 2005, food prices have risen to a whopping 80 percent. Why? There are a number of reasons. One is obviously the rising fuel costs, the other is the rising food demand from populous nations like India and China, and natural disasters also contribute significantly to the food crisis as they destroy crop yields all over the world, including the United Sates. The increased use of befouls by some nation has not helped the already volatile situation.
This indeed is reason enough to cause every government to act. Every nation has to make efforts to produce food for its population. Recently our government made a number of pledges aimed at reviving the agricultural sector, in an effort to ensure local food security. It needs to be stated that some of the intended initiatives are not new. They have been there before and have failed to make a positive impact on the agricultural sector and improve food security. We still import almost 80 percent of our national food requirements. The President has made announcements at a number of kgotla meetings that he has addressed since he took over the reigns of power in April to the effect that government is going to plough for very citizen for free. This might have been said with good intentions, to try and help Batswana who cannot afford the high costs of hiring draught power. But how does this particular initiative differ from the former Accelerated Rainfed Arable Programme (ARAP) which applied wholesale to every Motswana without prior assessment of their level of commitment towards farming? ARAP was implemented in the mid 80s whereby farmers were paid for destumping, ploughing and weeding their fields. It was one of the citizen empowerment initiatives by government. But when the then Minister of Agriculture Daniel Kwelagobe was asked what impact did the initiative made in as far as improving the agricultural sector and by extension the lives of Bastwana, he said, let me quote him in his own words, "Ah, ARAP, go tshwana fela le fa re ne re tsere madi re bo re a lema. Ga e a re busetsa sepe'. In other words he was saying the initiative failed to make meaningful contribution to improving food security and the lives of Batswana. Kwelagobe acknowledged that most Batswana did not take care of their crops, they did not weed and the result was a poor harvest. However, there were those few Batswana who were so passionate about farming and took advantage of the initiative to better their lives.
