Mandate of the Agricultural Hub

Tagline

Leading the transformation of agriculture, thereby significantly contributing to the wealth of the nation, by 2020.

ORIGIN
 The Agricultural Hub is one of the six (6) Hubs which were created following a recommendation from the Business and Economic Advisory Council (BEAC), in the Botswana Excellence Strategy of 2008, to drive diversification of certain sectors.

VISION

Leading the transformation of agriculture, thereby significantly contributing to the wealth of the nation, by 2020.

MISSION

To be the catalyst for the commercialization and diversification of the Agricultural sector in Botswana, aiming to develop an enabling environment that will encourage, facilitate, and support a viable and economically sustainable agricultural industry.

 MANDATE

The Agricultural Hub is mandated to coordinate the transformation, diversification and commercialisation of the agricultural sector. The Hub is further mandated to:

• Facilitate the implementation of mega agricultural projects of strategic importance.

• Promote agriculture as a business through encouragement of cluster farming.

• Provide an environment that is conducive for commercial private sector led growth in the agricultural sector.

• Identify and market new agricultural investment opportunities and promote Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and joint ventures in agriculture.

• Facilitate accessibility of prime land through identifying under- utilized land parcels and recommending them for re-allocation to best enterprises

• Facilitate research and studies aimed at understanding the sector, that is, on selected issues of strategic importance.

• Play a catalytic role through identifying bottlenecks to the sector’s development and advising on how to rectify them.

THE AGRICULTURAL HUB EXPECTATIONS

The Agricultural Hub expects investors to:

• submit well-researched business proposals that indicate potential business impacts on the sector.

• aim for optimal and efficient use of limited resources.

• create employment and where feasible to hire local people.

• transfer and share skills with the local people.

HOW THE HUB SUPPORTS THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE AGRICULTURAL SECTOR

1. Commercialization

The Agricultural Hub will identify opportunities that will increase productivity and employment creation, conduct robust feasibility studies and, if viable and implementable, hand these initiatives over to the relevant Agencies for implementation, whilst maintaining the coordination and monitoring and evaluation role for these initiatives.

2. Diversification

Diversification has been cited as a pillar for economic growth, sustainability and job creation. Benefits from diversification efforts have as yet not been fully realized. The Hub intends to identify diversification and export opportunities, and to create an environment, across the entire value chain, that will enable successful implementation of relevant initiatives. This will create growth and will contribute to food security and employment creation, whilst capitalizing on export opportunities.

3. Export

Beef is currently the only significant agricultural export product. The growth of the sector will be enhanced by aligning production of agricultural produce, to global market needs. The Hub will facilitate the identification of appropriate markets for products, and explore the utilization of existing export and distribution channels as provided by trade agreements.

the latest development inclde the initiation of value analysis in the major agricultural commodities. The Agricultural Hub joined hands with FAO to start value analysis of the Beef Value Chain. The Botswana Beef Value Chain Report was completed by MoA in collaboration with the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) in 2013. 

The report is well published on FAO News bulletin and anyone can read and refer to the contents. Currently the agricultural hub is working on implementation of the report recommendations.