Farmers in Botswana’s Okavango region are sounding the alarm over the limited and poorly structured markets that are stifling their ability to expand horticultural production, despite having ample land, water, and capacity to grow a wider variety of crops.
Their concerns point to a broader weakness in the country’s horticulture strategy, where efforts to boost local output have not been matched by equally robust market systems.
The Okavango Horticulture Farmers Association, representing more than 60 of the estimated 140 horticultural producers in the district, says the current market landscape forces farmers to base production on what they believe they can sell, rather than on the needs of national or regional markets. This dynamic has curtailed the cultivation of higher-value crops such as tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and butternuts. Instead, farmers favor vegetables like rape, which they can sell directly to consumers and street vendors, minimizing reliance on middlemen and reducing the risk of unsold produce.
In a bid to address these challenges, the association recently organized the Okavango Farmers Market Day and Crop Exhibition with support from the Department of Crops Production. The event offered farmers a platform to showcase their produce, engage potential buyers, and connect with agricultural stakeholders. While the market day highlighted the quality and diversity of the district’s horticultural products, it underscored a deeper issue: farmers need permanent, predictable channels to move their produce from farms to consumers, retailers, institutions, processors, and regional markets.
Currently, about 349 hectares in the district are allocated to horticultural farming, with roughly 260 hectares actively cultivated. Farmers now seek additional land in Shakawe to establish large-scale production, aspiring to build an agricultural base comparable to established hubs like Pandamatenga and Mosesedi. The district’s combination of water availability, favorable climate, and fertile soils makes this ambition plausible. Yet expanding acreage without addressing market access risks producing more crops than can be sold, leading to excess and spoilage.
Minister of Lands and Agriculture Dr. Edwin Dikoloti attended the market day and engaged directly with farmers, who cited market access as their most pressing challenge. The minister reaffirmed the government’s commitment to fostering a stronger agricultural sector capable of supporting sustainable growth.
This engagement comes as the government pursues a broader goal: transforming agriculture into a diversified and resilient sector that can improve food security, reduce import reliance, and stimulate economic growth. Yet, government data indicate that the challenge now lies less in production capacity than in market viability. Between April 2025 and January 2026, Botswana produced about 140,881 tonnes of horticultural goods, including 114,080 tonnes of vegetables -surpassing national vegetable demand by 1.8 percent. Fruit production covered roughly 67 percent of demand. Despite these gains, Botswana remains a net importer, hampered by seasonal gaps, climate variability, water shortages, high input costs, and insufficient storage and processing infrastructure.
These figures reveal a key contradiction: increased domestic production does not guarantee commercially viable markets for farmers. Surpluses at certain times require reliable logistics, cold storage, aggregation, grading, packaging, and buyers capable of absorbing consistent volumes. Without these, farmers face losses even when output is high.
The issue is also reflected in Botswana’s ongoing dependence on imports. World Bank data show the country imported about $12.9 million worth of vegetables and edible roots in 2023, with South Africa supplying nearly $12.25 million of that total. This underscores the entrenched role of neighboring countries in Botswana’s food supply chains.
But the import figures don’t imply local producers can’t compete. Instead, they highlight the structural challenge of building a domestic supply chain capable of delivering the right products, at the right volumes, prices, and times. Botswana’s own experience with import restrictions illustrates the complexity: the import bill for horticultural products fell from P634 million in 2018 to P182 million in 2023 following restrictions on select produce, yet gaps in storage and distribution persisted.
The government has acknowledged a critical misstep in the design of the Letsema Horticulture Market, which focused heavily on physical infrastructure – trading floors, cold storage, logistics -without anchoring the facility in confirmed, structured demand. This admission resonates with the Okavango farmers’ experience: market infrastructure alone cannot solve the problem. What’s needed is an integrated commercial system linking production forecasts with buyers, contracts, aggregation, transport, storage, processing, and distribution.
This gap raises questions about whether Botswana’s agricultural policies sufficiently address the entire value chain. Subsidies for irrigation, land expansion, and increased production can boost supply, but without guaranteed demand, farmers shy away from cultivating higher-value crops due to financial risks.
The challenge also complicates the government’s goal of reducing food imports. If farmers produce quality vegetables but lack consistent market access, public investments risk increasing production without easing dependence on imports during shortages.
For Okavango, a potential solution lies in stronger aggregation and distribution models that enable farmers to collectively supply institutions such as schools, hospitals, hotels, supermarkets, and processors. Such arrangements could give farmers more certainty before planting and encourage crop diversification beyond easily sold informal-market vegetables.
Developing Shakawe as a horticultural production and aggregation hub, rather than merely expanding cultivated land, could also be transformative. This would require investments in irrigation, packhouses, cold storage, grading facilities, transportation, market information, and agro-processing. It could position Okavango farmers to serve domestic markets like Maun and, over time, open regional trade opportunities.
Value-chain development offers benefits beyond primary production, creating jobs in packaging, processing, transportation, input supply, and other agricultural services. Botswana has previously identified value addition as key to expanding employment and boosting horticulture’s economic contribution.
The government’s challenge is to shift the policy focus from production volumes to farmer profitability. More vegetables grown don’t necessarily mean greater economic productivity if farmers can’t sell them at sustainable prices. Likewise, a market facility without enough buyers or reliable procurement isn’t a functioning market.
The concerns of Okavango farmers should serve as a caution as Botswana’s horticultural sector evolves. The country has made progress in boosting production and cutting import reliance, but the next test is turning those gains into sustainable businesses. Without dependable markets, storage, logistics, processing, and commercial linkages, increased output risks translating into post-harvest losses and unsold crops.
Their request for more land in Shakawe deserves consideration within a broader commercial strategy. Expanding land without expanding market capacity risks repeating past mistakes. The government’s experience with Letsema Market shows supply, infrastructure, and demand must be developed in tandem for horticulture to thrive as a competitive industry.
Okavango has significant potential. Its natural conditions support large-scale horticulture, and Botswana needs stronger domestic food production and economic diversification. Unlocking that potential will require treating farmers not just as producers needing inputs, but as businesses needing predictable customers, functioning value chains, and access to profitable markets.
