* Lived experiences of survival of Botswana farmers
In Lobatse, southeastern Botswana, farmer *Kewame Tlhago* recalls the devastation of the 2015/16 drought—the country’s most severe in decades.
“I had about 20 cattle, and they all died because of the severe drought. I depended on them for survival to care for my children, but they succumbed to harsh weather conditions,” she says.
Her story is emblematic of a national crisis. That drought slashed Botswana’s cattle numbers from over 1.36 million in 2015 to about 1.15 million by 2017, with the Gaborone Dam drying up and widespread livestock deaths reported.
For a nation where livestock underpins rural livelihoods and the beef export economy, climate change has become an existential threat.
Climate Shocks and Their Toll Climatic trends over the last 30 years show that rainfall has been decreasing on both annual and monthly bases across Botswana. Moreover, the number of rainy days has decreased across the country, especially in the country’s drier western areas.
These patterns are projected to intensify as climate change, including rising temperatures, heightened rainfall variability, and a greater frequency of extreme weather events such as droughts and floods, is poised to have a profound impact on the Southern African region.
Botswana’s beef sector has faced repeated climate shocks. The 2018/2019 drought was declared an extreme agricultural drought by the government, with official reports indicating 300,000 cattle deaths. Some districts like Kgalagadi lost up to 80 per cent of their herds.
The 2023/2024 drought, which was induced by the El Niño phenomenon, was equally devastating. It affected around 1.2 million cattle through deaths and forced sales.
According to Leo Natasha Tsheko, a rangelands specialist and climate change practitioner, drought remains the most frequent and serious challenge facing beef production.
Rising temperatures, heat stress, and unpredictable rainfall patterns have slashed forage supplies and water access, leaving smallholder farmers—who form the backbone of the sector—especially vulnerable.
Regional Vulnerability Botswana’s plight is mirrored across the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Alongside Namibia, it ranks among the world’s most drought-prone countries.
In 2018/19, Namibia’s drought killed 60,000 livestock and caused two-thirds of crops to fail, leaving a third of the population food insecure. Research shows that 40 per cent of Botswana’s livestock and 43
per cent of Namibia’s are directly impacted by climate change.
Livestock contributes about 80 per cent of Botswana’s agricultural economy, making climate volatility an economic threat as much as an environmental one.
Laura Bafeletse, Managing Director of iHerd (Pty) Ltd, says Botswana has endured both drought and flood impacts. “We have experienced deaths due to disease, where 10 cattle and 15 goats died. Of the 10 cattle, at least four were aborted calves,” she recalls.
Dry conditions force cattle to travel further for food and water, increasing stress, dehydration, and starvation. During the 2023/24 drought, supplemental feeding became essential but costly, averaging
P150,000 per month.
Floods in 2025 brought disease outbreaks such as pasteurella and lumpy skin, exacerbated by communal farming where cattle mix with unvaccinated herds.
For Mma Dineo, a widow and smallholder farmer near Lobatse, climate change compounds gendered barriers.
“As a widow heading my family’s herd, I have watched climate change steal our future—droughts like 2015/16 killed half my 50 cattle, and 2025 floods washed away feed,” she says.
“Women like me can’t own land under custom, missing aid and loans that men access easily. We’re stuck herding on borrowed soil, no boreholes or insurance.”
By contrast, commercial farmers like Kago Kopi recover faster with secure land titles and services. Yet even they face losses: “The 2015/16 drought wiped out 200,000 cattle nationwide, and last year’s floods around Gaborone drowned Kgatleng pastures, costing me 30% of my herd to wet-rot disease.”
Economic Strain and Market Impacts Beyond survival, climate change affects Botswana’s beef quality and market competitiveness.
“In drought seasons, cattle lose weight drastically, and to condition them to satisfactory weights, a farmer is forced to do supplementary feeding, which is quite costly,” notes Bafeletse.
She adds that scarcity forces animals to drink from contaminated water, increasing risks of diseases such as beef measles. This reduces meat quality and leads to condemnation by the European Union (EU) and other export markets.
To supplement numbers, her farm runs a small-scale feedlot system, buying cattle from community farmers.
“During drought season, we are presented with a lot of malnourished animals that need excess supplementary feed, and in some cases, the cattle reject the feed and die in our possession,” Bafeletse says.
Additionally, heavy rains bring tick-borne diseases and foot rot, raising vaccination and treatment costs. Withdrawal periods for medicines delay transport to the Botswana Meat Commission (BMC), extending feeding costs.
Even with insurance payouts, mortality in breeding herds disrupts long-term productivity. Climate volatility thus undermines both household survival and Botswana’s export-oriented beef industry.
Policy Landscape and Gaps Tsheko notes that Botswana has policies to assist farmers, but many remain unaware of them. These include the National Climate Change Policy (2021), National Adaptation Plan (NAP), Agricultural Policy (Ministry of Agriculture and Lands) and Drought Relief Assistance Programme.
All these policies focus on building resilience against climate change vulnerabilities, specifically targeting food security, water management, and agricultural productivity.
Additionally, Bafeletse argues that not all policies are farmer-friendly. The Tribal Grazing Land Policy (1975) largely benefited wealthy ranchers, while communal farmers remain disadvantaged.
The Botswana Land Policy (2015) allocated 738 ranches by 2013, but 80 per cent of beef still comes from communal grazing areas. Water access is further constrained by borehole spacing regulations under the Water Act and Borehole Act, with applications being rejected even when nearby boreholes are non-operational.
As of 2023–2024, Botswana has strengthened support for smallholder beef farmers through the Beef Cluster Development Strategy (2022–2027).
The strategy aims to boost competitiveness and productivity by organising farmers into cooperatives, promoting value addition through small-scale processing, expanding access to regional and global markets, and improving disease control to enhance export capacity.
Lame Ramokate, Head of Communications at Conservation International Botswana, notes that the Ecosystem-Based Adaptation and Mitigation in Botswana’s Communal Rangelands Project, Africa’s largest rangelands initiative by size and value, aims to benefit smallholder farmers.
Targeting Ngamiland, Kgalagadi, and Bobirwa, it benefits 247,000 people (40 per cent women) through climate-resilient livestock strategies, market access, and policy dialogues.
The project promotes the "Herding for Health" approach, which improves cattle drought resistance and increases herd productivity, thus boosting income and food security for female-headed households.
To strengthen women’s resilience, the project targets 60 per cent of women’s participation in Ecoranger and restoration jobs. It creates flexible, task-based restoration work that allows women to work closer to home or from home, for instance, restoration mats, gully filling and fodder-related work.
It also expands women’s roles in small livestock herding, fodder, and value-chain activities linked to ecosystem restoration.
The project also builds women’s skills and confidence by integrating gender and life-skills training into rangeland management and herding curricula, strengthening women’s technical capacity, and formally recognising and incorporating women’s Indigenous Knowledge into restoration practices and monitoring systems.
To increase women’s influence in decision-making, the initiative promotes their participation in governance structures such as Farmer Facilitation Teams, establishes a women's champions network, and tracks changes in women’s control over livestock and land-use decisions.
These efforts feed directly into Africa’s Agenda 2063, which Botswana is party to, which heavily stresses the transformation of rural livelihoods by empowering women, who constitute the majority of agricultural producers and rural inhabitants.
As Botswana navigates this “new normal,” urgent measures are needed: climate-smart farming practices, gender equity in land rights, innovation partnerships, and stronger policies to safeguard livelihoods.
• This story is published with support from IDRC and MESHA under the Action Research for Effective Coverage of Climate Change Issues in Africa (ARECCCA) project
“I had about 20 cattle, and they all died because of the severe drought. I depended on them for survival to care for my children, but they succumbed to harsh weather conditions,” she says.
Her story is emblematic of a national crisis. That drought slashed Botswana’s cattle numbers from over 1.36 million in 2015 to about 1.15 million by 2017, with the Gaborone Dam drying up and widespread livestock deaths reported.
For a nation where livestock underpins rural livelihoods and the beef export economy, climate change has become an existential threat.
Climate Shocks and Their Toll Climatic trends over the last 30 years show that rainfall has been decreasing on both annual and monthly bases across Botswana. Moreover, the number of rainy days has decreased across the country, especially in the country’s drier western areas.
These patterns are projected to intensify as climate change, including rising temperatures, heightened rainfall variability, and a greater frequency of extreme weather events such as droughts and floods, is poised to have a profound impact on the Southern African region.
Botswana’s beef sector has faced repeated climate shocks. The 2018/2019 drought was declared an extreme agricultural drought by the government, with official reports indicating 300,000 cattle deaths. Some districts like Kgalagadi lost up to 80 per cent of their herds.
The 2023/2024 drought, which was induced by the El Niño phenomenon, was equally devastating. It affected around 1.2 million cattle through deaths and forced sales.
According to Leo Natasha Tsheko, a rangelands specialist and climate change practitioner, drought remains the most frequent and serious challenge facing beef production.
Rising temperatures, heat stress, and unpredictable rainfall patterns have slashed forage supplies and water access, leaving smallholder farmers—who form the backbone of the sector—especially vulnerable.
Regional Vulnerability Botswana’s plight is mirrored across the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Alongside Namibia, it ranks among the world’s most drought-prone countries.
In 2018/19, Namibia’s drought killed 60,000 livestock and caused two-thirds of crops to fail, leaving a third of the population food insecure. Research shows that 40 per cent of Botswana’s livestock and 43
per cent of Namibia’s are directly impacted by climate change.
Livestock contributes about 80 per cent of Botswana’s agricultural economy, making climate volatility an economic threat as much as an environmental one.
Laura Bafeletse, Managing Director of iHerd (Pty) Ltd, says Botswana has endured both drought and flood impacts. “We have experienced deaths due to disease, where 10 cattle and 15 goats died. Of the 10 cattle, at least four were aborted calves,” she recalls.
Dry conditions force cattle to travel further for food and water, increasing stress, dehydration, and starvation. During the 2023/24 drought, supplemental feeding became essential but costly, averaging
P150,000 per month.
Floods in 2025 brought disease outbreaks such as pasteurella and lumpy skin, exacerbated by communal farming where cattle mix with unvaccinated herds.
For Mma Dineo, a widow and smallholder farmer near Lobatse, climate change compounds gendered barriers.
“As a widow heading my family’s herd, I have watched climate change steal our future—droughts like 2015/16 killed half my 50 cattle, and 2025 floods washed away feed,” she says.
“Women like me can’t own land under custom, missing aid and loans that men access easily. We’re stuck herding on borrowed soil, no boreholes or insurance.”
By contrast, commercial farmers like Kago Kopi recover faster with secure land titles and services. Yet even they face losses: “The 2015/16 drought wiped out 200,000 cattle nationwide, and last year’s floods around Gaborone drowned Kgatleng pastures, costing me 30% of my herd to wet-rot disease.”
Economic Strain and Market Impacts Beyond survival, climate change affects Botswana’s beef quality and market competitiveness.
“In drought seasons, cattle lose weight drastically, and to condition them to satisfactory weights, a farmer is forced to do supplementary feeding, which is quite costly,” notes Bafeletse.
She adds that scarcity forces animals to drink from contaminated water, increasing risks of diseases such as beef measles. This reduces meat quality and leads to condemnation by the European Union (EU) and other export markets.
To supplement numbers, her farm runs a small-scale feedlot system, buying cattle from community farmers.
“During drought season, we are presented with a lot of malnourished animals that need excess supplementary feed, and in some cases, the cattle reject the feed and die in our possession,” Bafeletse says.
Additionally, heavy rains bring tick-borne diseases and foot rot, raising vaccination and treatment costs. Withdrawal periods for medicines delay transport to the Botswana Meat Commission (BMC), extending feeding costs.
Even with insurance payouts, mortality in breeding herds disrupts long-term productivity. Climate volatility thus undermines both household survival and Botswana’s export-oriented beef industry.
Policy Landscape and Gaps Tsheko notes that Botswana has policies to assist farmers, but many remain unaware of them. These include the National Climate Change Policy (2021), National Adaptation Plan (NAP), Agricultural Policy (Ministry of Agriculture and Lands) and Drought Relief Assistance Programme.
All these policies focus on building resilience against climate change vulnerabilities, specifically targeting food security, water management, and agricultural productivity.
Additionally, Bafeletse argues that not all policies are farmer-friendly. The Tribal Grazing Land Policy (1975) largely benefited wealthy ranchers, while communal farmers remain disadvantaged.
The Botswana Land Policy (2015) allocated 738 ranches by 2013, but 80 per cent of beef still comes from communal grazing areas. Water access is further constrained by borehole spacing regulations under the Water Act and Borehole Act, with applications being rejected even when nearby boreholes are non-operational.
As of 2023–2024, Botswana has strengthened support for smallholder beef farmers through the Beef Cluster Development Strategy (2022–2027).
The strategy aims to boost competitiveness and productivity by organising farmers into cooperatives, promoting value addition through small-scale processing, expanding access to regional and global markets, and improving disease control to enhance export capacity.
Lame Ramokate, Head of Communications at Conservation International Botswana, notes that the Ecosystem-Based Adaptation and Mitigation in Botswana’s Communal Rangelands Project, Africa’s largest rangelands initiative by size and value, aims to benefit smallholder farmers.
Targeting Ngamiland, Kgalagadi, and Bobirwa, it benefits 247,000 people (40 per cent women) through climate-resilient livestock strategies, market access, and policy dialogues.
The project promotes the "Herding for Health" approach, which improves cattle drought resistance and increases herd productivity, thus boosting income and food security for female-headed households.
To strengthen women’s resilience, the project targets 60 per cent of women’s participation in Ecoranger and restoration jobs. It creates flexible, task-based restoration work that allows women to work closer to home or from home, for instance, restoration mats, gully filling and fodder-related work.
It also expands women’s roles in small livestock herding, fodder, and value-chain activities linked to ecosystem restoration.
The project also builds women’s skills and confidence by integrating gender and life-skills training into rangeland management and herding curricula, strengthening women’s technical capacity, and formally recognising and incorporating women’s Indigenous Knowledge into restoration practices and monitoring systems.
To increase women’s influence in decision-making, the initiative promotes their participation in governance structures such as Farmer Facilitation Teams, establishes a women's champions network, and tracks changes in women’s control over livestock and land-use decisions.
These efforts feed directly into Africa’s Agenda 2063, which Botswana is party to, which heavily stresses the transformation of rural livelihoods by empowering women, who constitute the majority of agricultural producers and rural inhabitants.
As Botswana navigates this “new normal,” urgent measures are needed: climate-smart farming practices, gender equity in land rights, innovation partnerships, and stronger policies to safeguard livelihoods.
• This story is published with support from IDRC and MESHA under the Action Research for Effective Coverage of Climate Change Issues in Africa (ARECCCA) project
