After receiving a consignment of 161 pedigree cows from Texas USA last week government of Botswana aims to augment its national herd, which currently stands between 2.5 and 2.8 million according to the Botswana Meat Commission (BMC).

Climate change has been identified as a major factor in the decline of the cattle population in Botswana. Farmers have since been advised to adopt methods such as Artificial Insemination (AI) which can help to increase livestock production and improve livestock breeds. The agricultural sector has been experiencing negative growth with the regression yielding a three percent contribution to GDP in 2020. This follows a persistent year in year out animal failure rates. Losses registered by the sector include a 36% loss in contribution to GDP by the agricultural sector from 1966 to 2022.

A 2017 annual agriculture survey report released by Statistics Botswana in 2021 indicated that the cattle population dropped from 1.3 million in 2015 to 1.1 million in 2017 due to an increase in cattle lost due to stray as well as stock theft.

Assistant Minister of Agriculture, Molebatsi Molebatsi recently revealed that the beef cattle population had decreased from over three million in 1979 to only 1.7 million in 2020. According to Molebatsi, the great decline seeks to erase the prestige the country has enjoyed from being a quality producer of beef meat to the international markets.

“We continue to experience a low bull-to-cow ratio in the country stalling birth rates at 56.7% and pegging death rates at 6.7 percent. This combined with ever-increasing reproductive diseases has rendered our efforts to increase the herd count null,” he said.

With the Texas cows now in Botswana, a purchase that has since sparked controversial debates across the national divide, the biggest question is how this effort by the government will contribute towards resuscitating the decline in the agricultural sector. According to the government, the importation of these elite breeds aligns with the objectives of the Revised Artificial Insemination Programme. These objectives include expanding the national herd and enhancing its genetic quality through the adoption of new technologies, encouraging private sector involvement, and facilitating access to top-notch germplasm.

While receiving the cattle at the Sir Seretse Khama International Airport last week, President Mokgweetsi Masisi said the purchase of the pedigree cows represents greater efforts by the government to bolster the sector by increasing cattle herd count. “These strategies are aimed at unlocking the agricultural value chain linkages, promoting market access as well as participation in the global beef market space,” he said. Minister of Agriculture, Fidelis Molao this week hosted a media tour of the Ramatlabama ranch where the pedigree cows are being kept.

He said contrary to popular belief that the government took an impulsive decision to purchase the cows, due diligence was applied before acquiring the pedigree cattle. Molao explained that the government through the transition agenda had planned to use up to P73 million to upgrade the Ramatlabama ranch. “Funds to purchase the pedigree cattle were appropriated from this standing budget,” he revealed.

During the media tour, the Minister of Agriculture also mentioned that one of the bulls was deemed unfit to travel from the US to Botswana by the supplier. Consequently, he revealed that the supplier will provide an equivalent number of straws to replace the bull, as transporting a single live animal over such a distance was expensive.

Molao further revealed that the sale of semen straw which will be extracted through artificial insemination will be sold at a price subsidised by the government. “Just as free education was an equalizer between the rich and poor in Botswana so will these cows serve as an equalizer for farmers all over Botswana whether rich or poor,” he said. In the long run, Molao believes that government will be able to shift to the export market of semen straw after the completion of the ranch upgrade by 2025.

Former Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture Micus Chimbombi recently gave a divergent view and believes that government should have pilot-run this project of improving animal headcount. He suggested that the first step should have been improving the infrastructural ability of the country to be able to handle such an investment. “I do not believe that the bulls and heifers are going to make a significant impact on the national herd. The infrastructure both at Ramatlabama, the National Artificial Insemination Centre and within farms and cattle posts in the country simply does not exist,” Chimbombi said.