Although agriculture and livestock production accounts for only 4% of the country's GDP, it employs about 25,7% of the country's labour force. The major part of the country has semi-desert and partly savannah conditions with erratic rainfall and poor soil conditions making it more suitable to grazing than crop production The livestock production is therefore the main agricultural sector.
Potential for investment in the agricultural sector lies in adding value to primary agricultural products as well as supplying the growing demand for farm machinery, irrigation and water pumps, and water transportation equipment. Specific opportunities exist in the following areas: processing of hides and skins into finished products; meat processing; manufacturing of chicken and cattle feed; agricultural chemicals; manufacture of agricultural machinery; construction of grain storage facilities.
Livestock - cattle, sheep and goats - are the major income earner of the agricultural sector contributing on average 80% of agriculture's share of GDP. It is estimated that the animal population is close to being in excess of the land carrying capacity at 3.2 million beasts giving rise to concerns about overgrazing. The Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) has a statutory monopoly on all beef exports. Beef is one of the country’s major export items. The BMC operates three abattoirs with a combined throughput of 1,320 cattle and 700 small stock per day. Botswana, being a signatory to the Lomé Convention, has an export quota to the European Union of some 19,000 tons per annum of boneless beef. Botswana's dairy industry is still in its infancy with most fresh milk and dairy products being imported from South Africa. Local production is being actively encouraged by the government through measures such as import controls.
While the distribution of income in the agricultural sector favours relatively few large commercial cattle farmers, subsistence farming by peasant farmers is the predominant form of agricultural activity providing food, income, employment and capital for two thirds of the country's population. Yet Botswana is essentially arid and subject to frequent and extensive droughts. Irrigated crop farming has proved difficult to promote and the country has to import up to 80% of its food requirements. The principal food crops are sorghum, maize, millet, pulses, groundnuts (peanuts), beans, sunflower seed . Marketing of agricultural products is handled by the Botswana Agricultural Marketing Board which guarantees a minimum price to producers.
The industry is regulated by the Ministry of Agriculture
