Acting Minister of Agriculture Molebatsi Molebatsi says his Ministry will implement projects to support key policy priorities for sustainable high income growth.

These include among others, Zambezi Integrated Agro-Commercial Development, refurbishment of Ramatlabama Artificial Insemination (AI) Centre, construction of agricultural infrastructure to high production areas, establish Meat Industry Regulatory Authority (MIRA) and cluster development.

He said that priority projects to be implemented under this thematic working group are; Zambezi Integrated Agro-Commercial Development Project, which is a 40,000-hectare project aimed at establishing a viable commercial agriculture capable of contributing meaningfully to the country’s GDP and creating direct employment for approximately 3,000 people.

According to Molebatsi, to date, Government has engaged a Transaction Advisor through the African Development Bank (AfDB) to conduct a feasibility study and recommend a Public Private Partnership (PPP) implementation model by November 2024.

Molebatsi told Parliament that the refurbishment of Ramatlabama National Artificial Insemination Laboratory is aimed at transforming the facility into a Centre of Excellence and a hub for processing of quality germplasm products - semen and embryos.

The livestock germplasm hub will promote assisted reproductive technologies (ART) for use by local and international markets. This, he said, will be done by upgrading the infrastructure and introducing Small Stock and multiple ovulation embryo transfer, the main objective being to improve reproductive efficiency of both the national herd and flock.

Government is reinforcing the competitiveness of Botswana beef to penetrate more markets through the Beef Cluster Development Initiative. Molebatsi said that Model farms will be established for technical capacity building and for sustainable grass-fed production.

He noted that the cluster is mainly done to enhance beef product marketing and value chain development to diversify exports towards achieving an export-led economy.

The Construction of Agricultural Infrastructure to high production areas entails the provision of access roads, electricity, water and telecommunication. Molebatsi added that the Ministry’s priority for this Plan will be improvement of access roads to these production areas to facilitate value chain development.

The establishment of the Meat Industry Regulatory Authority came as a result of the beef value chain recommendation for restructuring BMC and relaxing its export monopoly. The organ will regulate export and imports of livestock, meat products pricing, develop and implement quality assurance standards, the minister revealed.

According to Molebatsi, the Animal Information and Traceability System aims to support animal health programme and promote international trade and access to high value markets.

He told Parliament that the project will expand the scope of the traceability system to include other livestock, integrate Keeper ID and brand certificate, as well as enable offline access to the system.

There is also an ongoing initiative to automate both arable and livestock data management through what is dubbed Botswana Agricultural Management System (BAIMS), he stated.

The minister pointed out that National Agricultural Research and Development Institute (NARDI) is a project set to engage in high quality, innovation-intensive and needs-driven research and development; as well as commercialisation and technology transfer activities across the agricultural value chain.

He said the project will improve data collection, analysis, storage and dissemination of information and to facilitate increased agricultural productivity.

He said the Agriculture Sector Statistics Plan (ASSP) is a part of the global strategy for the improvement of agriculture and rural statistics; and is being implemented under the National Strategy for the Development of Statistics

(NSDS).

The minister explained that it is meant to strengthen and modernis e sector data management to ensure timely and quality statistics needed for evidence based policy and decision making.

“My Ministry is responsible for the formulation of agricultural policies, promotion of sustainable agricultural production and an export-oriented sector to achieve food security, economic growth and employment creation.

“As such an amount of P2, 439, 000, 000 spread across the three Thematic Working Groups being, Human and Social Development, Sustainable Economic Development and Sustainable Environment is requested.”