Farming is a lucrative business
More women and youth are need to develop interest in farming as a form of socio-economic upliftment. This was said by a passionate youthful farmer Pearl Ranna, who has made a name for herself by making farming “cool.” In a recent interview with The Midweek Sun, Ranna noted that Botswana is one of the countries that promote gender equality in farming but land rights, gender roles and poor access to finance, still hinder some women from playing an active role in this sector. “We need to break the stereotypes that farming is a male dominated industry or that farming is for the boy child. Women have shown growth and leadership in farming, however we still face socio-economic discrimination which hinders our progress.” As a young person herself, Ranna has noted some challenges that her contemporaries face in this sector and she noted that Botswana still had a long way to go in terms of providing youth based incentives and effective policies that could create a more conducive business environment for youth to venture into or grow the agricultural farming sector. “I have youth who still reach out to me for advice on getting land; even acquiring a one or two hectare piece of land is difficult for a young Motswana, which is disappointing. In other cases, upon getting land, access to gain infrastructural development assistance from the existing LIMID program for developing ground water has set its pre-requisites too high for any young person to even be eligible to apply for and comply with.” She added that access to finance remains the number one barrier for women and youth in farming. “The existing Youth Development Fund needs to be revised to suit the current investment climate needed for young people in farming. I believe it limits innovation, sustainability and overall feasibility of the businesses that receive funding due to its poor framework and stringent requirements. This is why we have YDF failure rates of 80-90% of government funded projects to date.” Farming appears lucrative but many young people are not willing to put in the hard work, she says, adding that they are not patient enough to wait to reap the rewards. “I believe that farming is about experimental learning. You can never learn about something if you just read about it; you need to follow through with action. That is one of the lessons I learnt as a small-time stock and poultry farmer. Being able to work and not solely rely on farm workers means being able to maintain and sustain yourself. Passion, Patience and Perseverance are key because farming is no child’s play - it requires a lot of sacrifice, sweat and tears… there is no overnight success.” Ranna developed interest in farming at secondary school when she used to assist her mother with record keeping, sales and marketing of her commercial piggery agribusiness. “I would accompany my parents to the farm every weekend and later went to study hydrophonics and vegetable production in South Africa.”