From: wsargeant@igc.apc.org (Winslow L. Sargeant)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african
Subject: IPS:Botswana, relief programme launched'
Date: 27 Jul 92 14:21:39 GMT

/* Written 12:04 am  Jul 27, 1992 by newsdesk in cdp:ips.englibrary */
/* ---------- "BOTSWANA: RELIEF PROGRAMME LAUNCHED" ---------- */
Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Reference: Agriculture
Title: BOTSWANA: RELIEF PROGRAMME LAUNCHED, BUT POVERTY IS REAL PROBLEM


an inter press service feature

by accadoga chiledi

harare, jul 24 (ips) -- the botswana government has launched a
one-year drought relief programme aimed to assist the country's
most vulnerable groups.

the programme targets 70,000 rural farming households,
under-five children and ''medically-selected vulnerable groups''
at a cost of 134 million pula (about 60 million dollars).

''the government wants to avert possible loss of life through
starvation'', ntshabele manemela, botswana's national food
security coordinator, told ips in a telephone interview from the
botswana, capital, gaborone.

the households, which regularly engage in smallholder arable
production in the country, are mostly headed by women and
consist of at least 350,000 people.

''the majority of these households live below the poverty
datum line'', according to a government briefing paper, ''the
drought situation in botswana'', made available to ips.

''since even in relatively good years these households remain
vulnerable, with drought and loss of rain-related income, their
vulnerability is often intensified''.

many of the households have not recovered from the 1981/87
drought in which production collapsed, greatly reducing
opportunities for rural employment, and livestock perished
emphasises the aide memoire.

the government aims to compensate their lost rural household
incomes and assets through a national labour-intensive rural
public works programme, says manemela.

at least 200,000 members of the households will be given some
form of employment under this programme, which the government
sees as ''a permanent major avenue for employment-creation and
for providing relief during droughts''. (more/ips)


botswana: relief (2)

under its supplementary feeding programme, the government
estimates it will need 14,400 tonnes of sorghum grain,
beans/pulses, soya beans and vegetable oil worth 11 million pula
(about five million dollars) between june this year and june
1993.

botswana is among the 11 southern african nations hit hardest
by the current drought, said to be the worst in living memory.

other drought-affected countries are south africa, angola,
lesotho, malawi, mozambique, namibia, swaziland, tanzania,
zambia and zimbabwe.

in botswana, the drought has reduced the production of the
staple crops (sorghum grains) in 1991/92 to 5,000 tonnes from
25,000 tonnes in 1989/90 and 36,000 tonnes in the 1990/91
season.

an assessment of the drought situation by three teams last
month ''indicates the situation is a little worse that we
thought it would be'', says manemela.

''in terms of production, our current estimates of all
production from the communal areas will not exceed 2,500 metric
tonnes of cereals'' (from an estimated 5,000 tonnes for
1991/92)'', says manemela.

the government's drought relief measures are based on the
1990 recommendations of the food studies group of the
international development centre, university of oxford.

according to manemela, the group was invited by the botswana
government (in 1990) to evaluate its ''drought relief and
recovery programme, 1982-1990''.

''despite the government's effective drought relief
programme, increases in rural poverty have left more families
vulnerable to the next drought,'' the oxford team said in their
report to the botswana government.

what is needed is to ''drought-proof the rural economy: more
rural development with less rain'' with water conservation,
promotion of multiple rural incomes, establishment of rural
works programme, consolidation of support safety net and placing
a suitable drought response programme on stand-by.

''if we are going to tackle the problem of drought, we've got
to tackle the problem of rural poverty itself first,'' stresses
manemela. it is rural poverty which has made the farming
households vulnerable to drought, ''aggravated by rain
failure''.

botswana exceeded all other non-petroleum producing countries
during the 1980s in economic performance, mainly from diamond
earnings, according to official figures. its gross domestic
product (gdp) rose, in real terms, by an annual average of 11
percent in 1980-89.

yet, says manemela, 55 percent of botswana 1.3 million people
leave below the poverty datum line. (end/ips/apc/oa/92)


Newsgroups: soc.culture.african