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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Environment and Food Security in Botswana |
Author: | Lado, Cleophas |
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. |