Go to AfricaBib home

Go to AfricaBib home AfricaBib Go to database home

bibliographic database
Line
Previous page New search

The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here

Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Environment and Food Security in Botswana
Author:Lado, CleophasISNI
Year:1996
Periodical:Eastern and Southern Africa Geographical Journal
Volume:7
Issue:1
Period:December
Pages:43-53
Language:English
Notes:biblio. refs., ills.
Geographic terms:Botswana
Southern Africa
Subjects:food policy
households
Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment
Development and Technology
geography
food security
Economic geography
environment
Abstract:This article presents the main issues of food security, including the socioeconomic and physical environmental setup, in Botswana. It notes that the common sources of income in the rural areas are cattle rearing, crops, small stock and remittances. Households are economically multi-active and typically also multilocal. Income is very unequally distributed among households and a large proportion live at a very low subsistence level. Various drought relief programmes - the Labour-Based Relief Programme, which started in 1982, the Accelerated Rainfed Arable Programme, implemented from 1985 on, and supplementary feeding of children - have reduced food poverty to a significant degree. Poverty is in fact more pronounced and mainly occurs in a larger number of households when rainfall is normally distributed. To achieve food security in the future, taking into account recurrent droughts, development strategy must be based on adequate government subsidies for cultivation and easier access to cattle ownership, as well as rural public works in the form of a 'permanent labour-based relief programme' in the off-season for crops. Since these strategies are unlikely to be carried out, given Botswana's dominant political ideology and the less than bright prospects for a substantial growth in diamond and beef exports, food security will continue to be highly problematic for a gradually increasing number of people. Bibliogr., sum.
Views