Volume 65 December 2026-January 2026 : Business

Food security for a country is when all people have access to enough safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs. It also includes having access to clean water, sanitation, health services and care.

Based on the 1996 World Food Summit held from November 13-17 in Rome, Italy, food security is defined as when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. 

Botswana, like other countries, is working around the clock to address the issues of food insecurity and the government has embarked on a variety of programmes, including school feeding, agricultural development, and technology.

According to the Statistics Botswana Prevalence of food insecurity in Botswana 2021/22 Report, it stated that at national level 53.29 per cent of the population in Botswana was affected by moderate or severe food insecurity in 2021/22 out of which 27.13 per cent were affected by moderate food insecurity and 26.16 per cent were affected severe food insecurity.

This translates to about 46.71 per cent of the population being food secure to mildly food insecure.

Those who experienced moderate food insecurity increased from 28.60 percent in 2018/19 to 30.90 in 2020/21 and further reduced to 27.13 percent in 2021/22. 

The percentage that experienced severe food insecurity increased to 26.16 percent in 2021/22 from 20.16 percent in 2020/21 and 22.20 percent in 2018/19.

Such results further show a rise in moderate or severe food insecurity in cities or towns from 31.70 percent in 2018/19 to 31.90 percent in 2020/21 and 34.94 percent in 2021/22. 

A similar pattern is observed in urban villages showing an increase from 46.60 percent in 2018/19 to 46.81 percent in 2020/21 and 53.21 percent in 2021/22.

In contrary, rural areas experienced a decline from 65.68 percent in 2020/21 to 64.35 per cent in 2021/22. 

Moderate food insecurity in rural areas increased from 32.40 percent in 2018/19 to 34.34 percent in 2020/21 and thereafter reduced to 30.86 percent in 2021/22. 

With regard to severe food insecurity, there was a reduction from 33.10 percent in 2018/19 to 31.34 percent in 2020/21 and thereafter increased to 33.49 percent in 2021/22.

In his inaugural budget speech presented to Parliament, the Minister of Finance, who is also the Vice President, Mr Ndaba Gaolathe said government is committed to a bold and transformative agricultural strategy geared towards optimal land use, enhancing labour productivity, food security and high value agriculture driven by adoption of technology and forging domestic and export competitiveness.

“We will strengthen agriculture’s linkages with key sectors such as manufacturing to create value-added opportunities, and a major shift in our approach will be revamping the agricultural subsidy system, moving away from supporting inputs to incentivising higher output and productivity,” he says.

Mr Gaolathe says a top priority will be to develop a comprehensive Agriculture Financing Strategy to improve access to capital for farmers and agribusinesses. 

Furthermore, he notes that the focus will be on developing a robust seed production industry to reduce reliance on imports.

He says they will also focus on establishing an organic fertilizer industry, reducing dependency on costly imports and also diversify agricultural production by tapping into high potential but untapped sub-sectors including HEMP production.

Mr Gaolathe says the government has combined the lands and agriculture portfolios under the new Ministry of lands and Agriculture in order to streamline services, stating that the proposed budget for the ministry amounts to P2.44 billion.

He notes that the proposed budget is intended to boost food security, support smallholder farmers and create jobs across the country and in addition, the budget will cover land policy formulation, implementation, monitoring and management to enhance equity and productivity.

Also, he highlights that the bulk of the budget will mainly support programmes that are aimed at supporting the country’s food security and agricultural export efforts. ENDS

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