Hit by weather, Botswana farmers seek welfare

Maipato Kesebang normally grows maize, jugo beans and sweet reed on her 20-hectare plot of land northwest of Gaborone, Botswana’s capital. But last year, worsening drought and heatwaves destroyed much of her harvest. “The little that grew feebly we just ate. Nothing was left for storage or to sell,” she said. Usually when her crops fail she turns to collecting wild spinach to sell, to support her two sons. But even that is now disappearing as climate change brings harsher weather and more people turn to harvesting the vegetable to survive, she said.

So last year, for the first time, she signed up to Ipelegeng, a long-standing government safety net program that provides temporary jobs for those struggling to make ends meet. Now she works one month out of four cutting back overgrown grass and trees, desilting dams and drains, collecting litter or cleaning streets. She’d prefer to work every month - but demand is so high for the jobs that there aren’t enough slots, she said. “We only work for a month, then we go home and wait for three months before we apply again. That’s because there are too many people now needing the relief,” said Kesebang, as she pulled weeds on her parched plot of land. As harsher droughts and hotter weather linked to climate change ruin crops more frequently in Botswana, the country is facing a new challenge: growing demand for social assistance programmes.

Swelling ranks About 68,000 people worked for Ipelegeng as of March 2018, according to figures from Statistics Botswana, up from about 64,000 in March 2016. Of those on the rolls, about 47,000 were women, according to the agency. To accommodate

rising demand, Botswana’s government last August increased the number of Ipelegeng slots by 5,000, after declaring 2018-2019 an expected drought year.

That will cost the country an extra $2.7 million - money that it does not readily have as its national budget does not specifically set money aside for drought relief, said Billyboy Siabatho, deputy director of the rural development council at the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development. “Often, when drought comes, we end up borrowing from funds that would have been set aside for infrastructure development projects,” he said.

Ipelegeng’s main objective is to provide short term employment and relief, while helping carry out development efforts the country sees as important, he said. “During drought periods, there are fewer farming activities. Therefore most people relocate from farms to villages, looking for alternative sources of income,” Siabatho said. “Due to limited job opportunities in rural areas, most people rely on Ipelegeng as an alternative source of employment,” he noted.

But as droughts continue to worsen in southern Africa, Siabatho wonders whether the government will be able to keep pace with growing demand. He also worries whether people will begin to see dependence on safety nets as an easier route than farming, as crop failures worsen. Botswana’s government, aware of the risks from worsening drought, began in December working on a new drought management strategy that aims to improve planning and budgeting for threats and not focus simply on responding to them, Siabatho said.

For Kesebang, such help can’t come soon enough. Her farm, a few kilometres out of the town of Molepolole, sits in Kweneng District, which has the highest poverty levels in the country, of over 50 percent, according to 2018 report by Statistics Botswana. Most of the 567 pula ($55) she earns each month she works for Ipelegeng goes to keep her youngest son in primary school. “I buy books and uniform. Often nothing is really left. Life has become difficult,” she said. — Reuters