The Government of Botswana through the Ministry of Entrepreneurship introduced a transformative and relief programme dubbed “Maja- A- Ikgorosa. The programme is a collaborative initiative by the Botswana Meat Commission (BMC), Botswana Agricultural Marketing Board (BAMB), Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA), and Local Enterprise Authority (LEA)- its aim is to support small to medium-sized cattle farmers gain better value from their efforts.
Besides creating enhanced value for base producers, the programme is necessitated by the realization that “Botswana Beef” is considerably losing its global presence and premium reputation- due to the unprecedented low supply of conditioned cattle to the Botswana Meat Commission (BMC). That reality has over time had the adverse effect of constricting the nation’s volume and value of beef exports.
The underlying corrective steps emanate from the fact that Botswana’s primary production system, is defined by a semi-arid vegetation profile. This is challenging to farmers and their livestock on which they rely on to support family livelihoods. Amongst these is farming in a sustainable manner and raising cattle that can go to slaughter without any supplementary feeding.
“Maja- a Ikgorosa’’ as an opportune proposition to small- medium sized farmers. Planned and intended to be a workable collaboration between and amongst several players in the value chain, the programme aims at facilitating dedicated farmers with finance (for cash-flow), animal feed and veterinary medicines as well as records management support, and business performance support.
This is to ensure that the farmers can have direct access to the BMC and are able to realize more reasonable market pricing, and more importantly, be meaningful included in the value chain for their produce. This initaiative, is part of imprementing the Economic Inclusion Act, 2021, which seeks to reduce avoidable deprivation. In short, it is desired and intended to have more Batswana participate effectively in the economy.
Government Introduces Maja-A-Ikgorosa Beef Cattle Feeding Programme