Operations manager at the farm Anne Schoeman revealed the diversification ideas in an interview during a recent media tour organised by the Botswana Investment and Trade Centre (BITC).
AR5, founded in 1997, currently cultivates 240 hectares of potatoes, 16 hectares of onions, and maintains 25,000 citrus trees. Additionally, the farm houses cattle and sheep. Most of the produce from the farm goes into the local market.
Officials believe at least P100 million has been invested into the farm since its inception. AR5 employs 150 people.
"We are considering the potential of entering into animal feed production as part of our diversification strategy,” Schoeman said. “Last season, we initiated cultivation on 20 hectares of Lucerne and 32 hectares of Tiff grass as well as 26 hectares of Sweet Sorghum. “While still in the trial phase, the market response has been encouraging, with our produce sold to local farmers.”
She revealed that in May the farm will plant eight hectares of Lucerne grass and 100 hectares of Sweet Sorghum, with a view to heightening their trials in the animal feed market.
“The challenge we are facing is competition from South African farmers. “They sell animal feeds at relatively low prices compared to us, and most local farmers prefer buying animal feeds from them,” she explained.
South African farmers are known for charging lower prices for their agricultural produce due to the access they enjoy to cheaper input costs, while by contrast, local farmers often struggle to maintain competitiveness due to higher costs. Most inputs sold by Batswana dealers are sourced from South Africa and are marked up to generate profits.
“Despite the challenges, we remain optimistic that with resilience and support from various stakeholders, we will establish ourselves in the market,” added Schoeman, expressing confidence in AR5's ability to carve out a niche in the animal feed sector.
Botswana's animal feed imports have been going down over the years. The decrease has largely been attributed to the growing number of local firms that are eager to explore the animal feed manufacturing space. It is anticipated that animal feed imports will decline to 28.8 million kilogrammes by 2026 representing a decrease of 1.3 percent compared to 2021, when imports totalled 31.2 million kilogrammes.
Since 2005, annual animal feed imports have decreased by 5.1 percent.
