Temo Letlotlo: A ticking political time-bomb
When President Mokgweetsi Masisi launched Temo Letlotlo, it was touted as the hottest thing after chakalaka. The sweetest thing after honey.
With an estimated initial budget of over P500 million, the arable programme was to equip farmers with knowledge on the best farming practices, assist them acquire farm implements on cost sharing basis and support them in producing food for their households and the nation.
In a nutshell, it was aimed to end hunger, achieve food security and improve nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture. But so far, there is little to no doubt that Temo Letlotlo is a stillborn.
The rural peasantry, who has been excluded by the confused and confusing requirements of the programme are in reeling agony. Surely, there is nothing they are going to be putting on the table for their families.
Most of our subsistence farmers, have been excluded from the programme because their fencing is said not to meet the specifications required by the programme. Poor understanding of Temo Letlotlo by extension officers, is mutating the situation from a crisis to a disaster.
There is also clear lack of harmonisation of processes between government and other stakeholders such as financial institutions. There seems to be no proper communication and coordination between the key stakeholders and the farmer is on the receiving end.
By all accounts, Temo Letlotlo is a ticking political time bomb for the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP). Their traditional vote, which is the peasantry lot, has been excluded by this ‘elitist’ endeavour. The sooner the BDP, swallow their usual elephant-size pride and accept the dismal failure of this programme the better.
A combination of drought and misguided economic policies have resulted in decreased food security and frequent famines in many African countries in recent years. Botswana has been a rare exception that has survived its worst drought without a single death from hunger.
It has adopted a National Food Strategy that has both long term and short-term policy dimensions. The long-term goal is to increase food security through improved agricultural production and diversified rural economy.
In the short term, the goal is to provide food security to the most vulnerable segment of its population. However, a survey by Statistics Botswana, which its results are carried in the report titled; ‘Prevalence of Food Insecurity in
Botswana,’ indicates that, at national level 53.29 percent of the population in Botswana was affected by moderate or severe food insecurity.
Out of this percentage, 27.13 percent were affected by moderate food insecurity and 26.16 percent were affected by severe food insecurity. This translates to about 46.71 percent of the population being food secure to mildly food insecure.
Attaining food security is a process, rather than an activity. The first challenge is to increase food production, while minimising the environmental impact and increasing natural resource efficiency.
This requires increasing agricultural productivity, in particular in developing countries where the agricultural sector contributes an important share of gross domestic product (GDP) and where large productivity gaps still exist.
Secondly, broader rural development strategy is also required, including infrastructural investments to better connect producers and smallholders to output markets, including rural-urban linkages.
Thus, increasing food production and improving distribution to respond to population growth, urbanisation and a change in consumption patterns requires an integrated approach to addressing several challenges simultaneously along the entire food chain.
Such an integrated approach to food security and environmental sustainability should also take into consideration the nexus of food, water, energy, environment and climate, while reorienting food production, distribution and consumption.