Persistent drought threatens cereal prices
Isaac Pinielo | Friday May 20, 2016 15:04
“This has caused an increase in cereal requirements leading to more cereal imports and increased food prices,” stated the statistical agency.
Data published by SB in its latest edition of the natural disasters digest shows that the total cereal requirements fluctuated between the years 1998 and 2007.
It then adopted an upward trend from 330 tonnes in 2009 to 420 tonnes in 2013 during, and these years were officially declared as drought years, said SB.
A comparative analysis of the total cereal requirements with total cereal production reveal that production fell short of requirements in all the presented years from 1998 to 2013.
The agency said the situation depicts a clear picture of the problem of food insecurity Botswana has at hand. From 1999 to March 2015, a total of P6.01 billion was used to import cereals like maize, rice, sorghum, millet and wheat.
According to SB, maize was imported in large quantities with 1.7 billion kilogrammes during the review period, followed by sorghum with 535 million kg, wheat with 360.3 million kg, and rice with 207.5 million kg.
Generally, the quantities of cereals imported and the amount of money expended saw a significant increase during the 1999 to March 2015 period.
On the other hand, SB said there has been an increase in the population size of Botswana, hence an increase in the number of people to feed.
In 1991 to 2001, the population experienced an increase of 26.7 percent from 1.33 million to 1.7 million, and another increase of 20.5 percent from 1.7 million in 2001 to 2.24 million in 2011.
Data also shows that there were more cereal imports during the years 2010 with 388.4 million kg, 2009 with 328.7 kg, and 2012 with 304.5 million kg.
According to the Rural Development Council (RDC), these were drought-stricken years.
It said that the whole country was drought stricken during the period of 1981-1987; 1991-1999; 2001-2005; 2007-2008; 2011-2013; and 2014 adding that the worst drought in recent years was from 1981 to 1987 followed by 1990 to 1995.
The results also indicate that Ghanzi, Kgalagadi, Southern, and South East districts had the highest drought severity compared to other districts.
Earlier on, the director of food, agriculture and natural resources at the Southern African Development Community (SADC), Margaret Nyirenda had noted that the SADC region is facing a cereal deficit of over six million tonnes emanating from prolonged dry spells in Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, southern Angola and Zimbabwe in the 2014-2015 season.