*P206 Million secured from CEDA and NDB for grain farmers
*Trust needed between BAMB and farmers- GPA
The Ministry of Lands and Agriculture, in collaboration with Citizen Economic Entrepreneurial Agency(CEDA) and National Development Bank (NDB) has secured P206 million to partially settle the P271 million owed to farmers for their 2024/25 grain harvest.
Government says efforts are underway to raise the remaining P65 million.
Disbursements have begun, with 100% paid to farmers owed below P1 million and 74% paid to those owed above P1 million.
With funds now reaching both small-scale and large-scale farmers, this marks an important progress of moving toward full settlement.
In November, Acting Minister of Lands and Agriculture Dr Edwin Dikoloti promised to pay farmers by mid December, a promise which is slowly becoming fulfilled.
This follows a lament from farmers last month crying for payments for an estimated volume of about +120,000 tonnes of assorted grains including more than 80,000 tonnes of sorghum.
This included over 53,000 tonnes of sorghum, 3,000 tonnes of cowpeas, and 2,000 tonnes of maize delivered to Botswana Agricultural Marketing Board (BAMB).
The number of those farmers owed was 466 of which 430 of them were small scale farmers.
“My ministry has been working around the clock to facilitate funds availability to BAMB to settle the outstanding payments owed to farmers for grain delivered during the past procurement season,” Dr Dikoloti said.
The Minister added that while the absence of a dedicated budget presents a challenge, the ongoing funding efforts give assurance that government remains committed to honouring the payments due to farmers.
“We recognise the critical role farmers play in national food production and are prioritising this matter to restore confidence within the agricultural sector,” he said, adding that these payments reflect BAMB’s ongoing commitment to supporting farmers across all scales of production.
According to available statistics, Botswana’s cereal imports for the month of August stood at P196 million with maize leading the way at 46%, rice at 31% and wheat and meslin on 23%.
Botswana Grain Producers Association (BGPA) Secretary, Gofaone Mapitse told this publication that the payments from BAMB were a welcome development and relief for farmers.
“Hopefully this will aid farmers to plant before season ends in January for farmers in the south and February for those in the north. So the culminating work of the association which it has been championing for the past few months have worked and BAMB also did not envision being in this predicament and had been trying to organise finance to pay farmers. We, as farmers need BAMB to be in a position to pay its obligations to farmers on delivery. For that to happen wholesale structural changes are needed and unfortunately it will also mean job losses in the interim. I believe government realises the need for BAMB to focus on its core mandate and streamline operations,” said Mapitse, emphasising that trust needs to be rebuilt between BAMB and farmers.
Meanwhile, in parliament, Dr Dikoloti revealed that P9.3 million has been paid to 71 small to medium scale farmers in the Chobe region from April 2025 to date for produce supplied.
According to Dr Dikoloti, the total tonnage received from the Chobe area was 2855.15 metric tonnes of cowpeas valued at P32, 843,225, 53,012.9 metric tonnes of red sorghum at P225, 304,825.
Commercial farmers supplied 2845.70 metric tonnes of cowpeas valued at P32, 734,550 and 51,012.9 metric tonnes of sorghum valued at P216, 804,825.
Subsistence farmers supplied 2000 metric tonnes of sorghum valued at P500 000 and 9.45 metric tonnes of cowpeas valued at P108, 675.00.
