Botswana’s Twelfth National Development Plan (NDP 12) sets out an ambitious roadmap to transform agriculture into a cornerstone of economic growth, promising diversification, employment, and export expansion. Yet behind its sweeping optimism, the plan reveals an uneven focus prioritising cattle and large-scale ventures while leaving small stock farmers, including goat, sheep, and pig producers, on the policy margins.
Unveiling the plan before Parliament, Minister of Lands and Agriculture Dr. Edwin Dikoloti said the sector aims to raise its contribution to GDP from 1.7% to between 6% and 10% by 2030, expand the national cattle herd to 4.6 million, and create 250,000 jobs. The blueprint identifies key value chains such as dairy, horticulture, and fodder production, but there is no specific mention of small stock the livestock that sustains most rural households in Botswana’s arid zones.
While goats and sheep thrive in regions like North West, Gantsi, and Kgalagadi, their potential remains largely untapped. The speech makes no reference to market access, breeding programmes, or disease control measures for small ruminants. Instead, government attention remains fixed on beef production and cattle export competitiveness through the Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) and disease-control infrastructure.
The omission is particularly stark given the realities faced by small-scale farmers in rural areas, where goats and sheep are important sorces of food security and income generation.
According to Statistics Botswana, the current national population of sheep and goats are approximately 296 thousand and 1.8 million respectively, amaking them effectively leading assets in small stock farming,
Goats and sheep, collectively known as small stock, are highly suitable for Botswana’s climate primarily due to their exceptional hardiness and adaptability to semi-arid and arid environments, according to the Ministry of Agriculture (Government of Botswana, 2022). They are well-known for their ability to thrive on the country’s sparse and low-quality rangeland forages and can efficiently utilize a variety of browse (shrubs and trees) and grazing materials that cattle often cannot, as noted by Bahta et al. (2019) in the Botswana Journal of Agriculture and Applied Sciences.
The indigenous Tswana breeds are particularly resilient, exhibiting high survival rates, strong disease resistance, and the capacity to cover long distances in search of pasture and water, which is critical during the frequent dry seasons and periods of drought, according to Mogotsi et al. (2016) in the Journal of Arid Environments. Furthermore, their smaller size means they have lower water requirements compared to large stock, and their short generation intervals allow farmers to quickly rebuild their flocks after losses, making them a more reliable and less capital-intensive livestock enterprise for resource-poor farmers in a climatically challenging region, as highlighted by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO, 2021) in its Livestock Sector Brief: Botswana.
Beyond goats and sheep, piggery farmers face similar neglect. According to recent NWDC report, pig farming in the North West district produced 23.93 tons of pork meat from 404 slaughtered pigs, a modest increase from 22.22 tons in the previous quarter. However, the lack of a dedicated slaughter facility with meat inspection services continues to cripple the sub-sector. Without certified abattoirs, pig farmers are barred from supplying retail outlets, butcheries, and institutional buyers, forcing them to sell informally at lower prices.
Local farmers shared that the market is there with some investigations showing that nations such as Angola are possible markets, but are ultimately barred by systematic inadequacies.
Such challenges undermine NDP 12’s stated goals of inclusivity and diversification. By overlooking smaller but vital sub-sectors like piggery, goats, and sheep, the plan risks widening inequality between commercial and subsistence farmers especially in remote regions where small stock are often the main source of livelihood.
Although the plan promotes “climate-smart agriculture” and “integrated crop-livestock systems”, it provides no clear strategy to integrate small stock or piggery into those frameworks. This gap contradicts the government’s push for climate resilience. “Small stock and pigs are the most adaptable to Botswana’s environment,” noted a policy analyst in Gaborone. “They should be the heart of rural transformation, not the footnote.”
