Botswana

Botswana is a land-locked country, with South Africa to the east and south, Namibia to the west and north, Zambia to the north and Zimbabwe to the north-east. It lies between approximately 20° to 29.15°E and 18° to 27°S (see Figure 1). The country covers approximately 582,000 square kilometres. Mean altitude above sea level is approximately 1000 m. According to the World Factbook the July 2006 estimated population was 1,639,833 with a -0.04% growth rate.

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Figure 1. Location of Botswana within southern Africa [source: The World Factbook]

A large part of the country at 17% (104,460 km²), is National Parks, Game, Forest and Private Reserves. The pastoral land includes virtually all that outside of National Parks, Game and Forest Reserves, major cities and towns.

The area under crops varies from year to year, as the country is prone to drought on a regular basis; even in good years the crop area is only around 0.65% of the land area. There is also a disparity between areas planted and areas harvested in most years, since the harvest depends on the rainfall during the growing season.

The Agriculture Sector of the Economy

The agriculture sector of the economy is driven largely by the international beef market including South Africa and the European Community. There is very little commercial crop production, and most crops are produced for subsistence, or for sale locally. A list of typical agricultural enterprises is given below:

(i) Large stock: Beef ranching and traditional ‘Cattle Post’ production systems; Game ranching; Feedlots; Dairying.

["Cattle Post" production systems refer to unfenced rangeland where there are central watering points. The cattle owner, or more often, a herdsman, lives in a small hut near a borehole, and provides water to livestock. The water is most commonly pumped from a borehole, but in areas where there is a shallow water table - such as in pans and dry river beds, water is taken from hand dug wells. The post often has a holding kraal, which was traditionally made of thorn fence, or upright tree trunks dug into the ground. Nowadays, the kraals are most commonly built with poles and wire - as in commercial ranching. The cattle are let out in the day-time, and may roam for several days, before returning to drink. In winter when temperatures are mild, and in the rainy season, cattle can wander far from their home kraal. Goats and sheep, are generally found closer to the kraals, and tend to return every night, while non-lactating cattle tend to stay out from time to time - except where there are large predators. Cows with calves at foot tend to remain closer to the kraal, as the calves are kept in the kraal until they are old enough to fend off predators, mainly jackals - but in some areas they are also preyed upon by larger predators such as leopard, lion, wild dog and cheetah. The cows with calves also stay closer as they need to drink water more regularly than dry cows and other types of livestock. Cattle posts also have donkeys - mainly for transport, and sometimes horses].

(ii) Crops and forestry: Forestry; Dryland/rainfed cropping e.g. sorghum, millet, maize, sunflower, melons; Irrigated farming e.g. vegetables; Flood recession, &/or Molapo farming - similar to irrigated farming using residual soil moisture (this is arable farming in drainage lines and depressions where flooding is seasonal or, in the desert areas, where soils have higher moisture storage capability). In the north, there are ephemeral rivers which flow and dry up as the flood waters recede, on an annual basis; people then plant grains and vegetables in the soils that still retain moisture at relatively shallow depths, within the root zones of the crops); Horticulture & Hydroponics - extensive rural vegetable and fruit growing, and intensive nursery plant production in urban areas.

Specialist systems; Apiculture; Ostriches; Fisheries; Aquaculture; Crocodile farming.
Small stock and poultry: Small stock; Pigs; Poultry.
Subsidiary industries; Slaughterhouses & Abattoirs; Tanneries.

Farm tenure

Farm tenure systems vary from tribal/traditional land use holdings, to leasehold, to freehold. Tribal and leasehold land returns to the state after the period defined in the lease agreement. In the case of tribal land, fields and boreholes may be passed down from one generation to the next, but if not used regularly, the right may be withdrawn by the District Land Board. Leasehold land is normally held for 50 years, with option to renew after that period, while freehold land is held in perpetuity, or for 999 years. The tenure systems affect the value of the land, with significant increases in value the longer the lease. The reverse can be said for the amount of input required in obtaining the land. Freehold and leasehold land requires Government authorization, while tribal land only requires approval from the District Land Board.

Farm Sizes

1.Crop farm sizes are highly variable: small fields in the seasonal river flood zones are around 0.5 ha - 5 ha; dry land cropping areas and many irrigated farms are around 4-20 ha; while large, commercial crop lands in the north east of the country on seasonal floodplains with black cotton soil range from around 2,000-5,000 ha.

2.Commercial livestock farms: Small farms - holdings for intensive production of small stock, chickens, pigs and dairy - vary from 1-20 ha., mostly around 4 ha; Ranches vary from around 1,600 ha (4km x 4 km), to over 100,000 ha; many of the large ranches are on freehold land.

3.Tribal ranches and cattle posts. Tribal Grazing Lands Policy Ranches (TGLP) are standardised at 8 km x 8 km (6,400 ha), although this size may be reduced in areas where surface water is abundant, normally to around 6 km x 6 km. The standard size is a function of water allocation policy by the Department of Water Affairs. Many ranches depend on deep boreholes, and draw-down profiles on these boreholes show that 8 km between boreholes is the closest distance at which boreholes do not affect one another in the arid and semi-arid sandveld areas. Cattle posts are mainly places where the use of a borehole, or a well in a river or in a pan has been authorized by the local Land Board; they are rarely fenced as it is common land. In cattle post conditions, livestock can come and go, as and when they need drinking water. In the Kalahari areas cattle are sometimes found up to 30 km and further from their home well, during the wet summer period because they drink from puddles and pans. They also wander extensively in the cooler winter when grazing and forage are scarce, depending on wild melons and tubers for moisture. In some locations, traditional livestock owners form syndicates to own a borehole and run livestock jointly . This generally occurs where individuals have only a few animals each and it is cost effective to pool their resources.

Socio-economic and Marketing Issues

The major socio-economic issues affecting farmers are the remoteness of farms from major centres and the difficulty in obtaining water. Irregular rainfall leads to very low crop yields, except where crops are grown on receding flooded areas. Water from deep Kalahari boreholes is often too salty for irrigation. Farmers in the remote areas have very few facilities such as transport and telephones, and supplies and marketing costs are prohibitively high. Traditional farmers do not own resources against which financing can be offset, so they tend to run their affairs at very low input costs.

The Botswana Government does have schemes, however, that provide assistance to low-income farmers; these include assistance for livestock purchase, breed improvement, and subsidies for purchase of seeds, ploughing and weeding. A key issue, however, is that these schemes are used mainly by those who are aware of them and people who need the financial assistance the most may lose out to better educated and more aware people who reside in the urban centres, have steady jobs and employ people from remote areas to run their farms for them for meagre wages. Remote area traditional farmers therefore tend to be subsistence/self-sufficient producers who rely mainly on livestock for barter, social custom and cash when they need it.

Many people in remote areas survive by harvesting products such as timber, firewood, and edible plants. They also obtain medicinal plants from the grazing land. These people have tended to be seasonally nomadic, but with the advent of fenced land, people with nomadic lifestyles have been compressed into smaller and smaller areas. This has been exacerbated by the perceived need to provide primary health and educational facilities to nomadic peoples. Such issues have produced major conflicts of interest between traditional groups, who wish to retain their culture, and the Government, who feel that the provision of essential services, at reasonable cost have higher priority than facilitating very small groups to continue their nomadic lifestyles while providing essential facilities at prohibitively high costs.

Commercial producers often have their own transport, but until recently when long stretches of the national road network were tarred, it had been expensive to transport cattle to the main commercial abattoir located in the south east of the country. The tarring of the major roads has reduced both the road transport costs, and damage to livestock carried to the major abattoirs in large trucks.

2. SOILS AND TOPOGRAPHY

Much of the country is covered by sandy soils. The eastern areas have hills and drainage depressions which feed the Limpopo River. These soils are mainly sandy loams to sandy clay loams, with shallow skeletal soils where heavy, sporadic rainfall washes newly formed soil materials into low lying areas and down drainage lines. The soils are thus mainly alluvial and /or colluvial.

The west is covered almost entirely by deep sands forming the Kalahari Desert which accounts for about two-thirds of Botswana and comprises sandy soils to 120 m depth. The area supports mainly scrub patches of short, close-canopy woodland, scattered shrubs and grassland and there are virtually no perennial open surface water bodies. Water is obtained by drilling boreholes to a depth of around 200 m, where it is found in fossil, underground tanks. In some areas in the extreme west boreholes go as deep as 500 m; current research efforts are aimed at drawing water from as deep as 1 km below the surface.

The soils of the Okavango Delta and surrounds are predominantly silty sands with some organic/humic content. As the rivers that flow out of the Okavango Delta disperse into the Makgadikgadi Pans areas, the soils become fine sands with high sodicity on the seasonally flooded flats and fine silt sands on the dry ancient lacustrine shoreline areas.

For full details of the soils of Botswana and soil fertility in Botswana see Figures 2 and 3.


Figure 2. Soil Map of Botswana [Click to enlarge map]	Figure 3. Soil Fertility in Botswana [Click to enlarge map]

Major Topographic Features

Much of the country is flat, with gentle undulations and occasional rocky outcrops. In the north-west the Okavango River drains inland from Angola, to form the Okavango Delta. In the central north-east is a large flat plain overlying layers of calcrete which border the Makgadikgadi Pans. The Pans themselves are flat open expanses of sand that are seasonally inundated by shallow (saline) waters fed by local, internally draining rivers mainly from the north-east, but occasionally from the west.

In the east, the country is drained by the Limpopo. Here the land rises to about 1200 m and gradually descends to about 900 m in the Limpopo Valley, before dropping to only 500 m in the eastern-most region, at the confluence of the Limpopo and Shashe rivers.

Botswana’s main land systems are shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4. Botswana's Land Systems
[Click to enlarge map with key]

3. CLIMATE AND AGRO-ECOLOGICAL ZONES

Climate

Botswana is close to the sub-tropical high pressure belt of the southern hemisphere. The climate is driven by two distinct climate zones with the majority falling under the Zaire Air Boundary climate zone to the north. This system brings the summer thunderstorms and heavy downpours of rain. A small part, mainly in the south-west, is influenced by the South Atlantic Oscillatory climate system which moves in and out of the country from the west and south west, generally bringing very cold spells and winter rain.

Mean rainfall ranges from 650 mm in the extreme north-east to 250 mm in the extreme south-west. A secondary maximum mean of 550 mm occurs in the higher areas in the south-east and a secondary minimum of 350 mm occurs on the lowest areas of the Limpopo valley. The country is prone to drought.

Temperature variations are extreme throughout the year. They also vary greatly within the daily cycle and according to location, vegetation cover, wind reach, and the presence of any large water bodies.

In winter, from around mid-May to mid August, the coldest areas are in the southern half, with lowest temperatures being experienced in low-lying areas such as depressions and along drainage lines. There are few clouds in winter and the air is generally clear resulting in warm days, with temperatures in the low 20’s, but dropping to ~0°C, in the early hours of the morning. In summer temperatures vary from ~12-15°C during the early morning, to ~30-40°C by late afternoon in the hot, dry season (generally from mid September to late October), but the maximum temperatures remain ~25-30°C, during the rainy season. Temperatures in the northern and in the western desert areas can rise to the mid to upper forties in the late dry season, prior to the rains.

Figure 5 shows four maps of maximum and minimum temperature in Botswana


Mean Maximum June Temperatures	Mean Minimum July Temperatures

Mean Maximum October Temperatures	Mean Minimum October Temperatures

Figure 5. Maximum and Minimum Temperature in Botswana
[Click on maps to view enlarged versions]

Humidity. The country experiences very few cloudy days, having around 290-300 sunshine days per year. Humidity is therefore extremely low, particularly in the dry months, (~0 %), rising to an average of around 65 %, in the rainy season. Average annual evaporation is ~2,000 mm, which exceeds annual precipitation by a factor of 4 to 8 (depending on the location).

Effects of Topography on the Climate. The factors which affect the local climate are the locations of the oceans that surround southern Africa; the nearest is the South Atlantic, to the west, across the Kalahari-Namib Desert. The Indian Ocean lies to the east, across South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. Within Botswana there are few topographic features which affect rainfall, other than the ranges of hills along the SE area of the country, with a second range in the E central part of the country. The least harsh climate is in the north and NE , associated with the Chobe and Zambezi river front on the Northern border, and in the Okavango Delta, which has areas of permanent and temporary swamps and seasonally flooded plains. The harshest climate is in the SW.

Rainfall. The relatively flat nature of the country, with very few large open surface water bodies (except in the Okavango Delta, in the north west), results in few orographic effects generating rainfall, except in a few localised areas, particularly in the south east.The country has an arid, summer rainfall climate (November to April), consisting generally of scattered, high intensity, short-duration thunder showers. This rainfall occurs as a result of the Zaire Air Boundary moving southwards, and channelling moist, upper air from the Indian Ocean across Zimbabwe and northern RSA, into northern and eastern Botswana. There are some anomalies, which can be associated with cyclones coming off the major oceans. Prolonged, general rain, which can last several days generally comes from the Indian Ocean to the east, in summer, and from the south Atlantic Ocean, to the west, in winter. There is also a commonly occurring, mini-drought period, from about mid January to late Februar y. For rainfall isohyhets see Figure 6.

Figure 6. Hydrometeorological Map of Botswana (isohyets in millimetres)
[Click to enlarge map]

Annual rainfall varies in a cyclical pattern with drought occurring regularly in almost all parts of the country. For livestock, drought conditions are when the rainfall is 40% less than the local average. Drought has been defined in Bhalotra (1985) as: "Meagre and highly variable rainfall, both in time and space, combined with high evapotranspiration rates, make Botswana a water-short country where drought is a recurring hazard and raising of crops a gamble (even) in the rainy season." Hydrologically, it is the rapid depletion of surface water in rivers, lakes and reservoirs. Agriculturally it occurs where there is inadequate soil moisture to support the growth of crops and other plants to maturity. During drought cycles, which may last around 15 - 20 years, drought occurs in about two out of every three years. The cycle then moves into an above average rainfall cycle, where drought can still occur in 1 out of 3 to 4 years. This cycle also lasts about 15 years. Long-term climate changes have been modelled by the Department of Geological Sciences, Wits University, RSA.

Wind speed is relatively low, at around 4-5 km/hr, for most of the year, except prior to local thunderstorms. The wind generally comes from the east to north-east in the summer but veers mainly to the west to south west during the period around rainfall occurrences.

Agro-Ecological Zones
Reference should be made to the map (Figure 7) showing land suitability for rainfed agriculture. The more detailed key for the map is also given below in Table 1.


Figure 7. Land Suitability For Rainfed Crop Production [Click to view enlarged version]	Table 1. Detailed Key for the Land Suitability Map [Click to view enlarged version]

The following information can be directly interpreted from the map:

Classes of potential dependable yield based on average of crops considered and the proportion of productive land within the map.
Additional land constraints and hazards.

The agricultural zones are very closely linked to the land systems. The four basic land systems (FAO, 1990) are: aeolian deposits, or sandveld; soils on rocky areas, or hardveld; lacustrine or ancient lake-beds, and recent alluvial soils.

A detailed listing of potential yields of sorghum, maize, millet, cowpea and groundnut is given for each mapping unit and data are summarized in Table 2.

Table 2. Potential Yields

Yield Class	Indicative Potential Dependable Yields (kg/ha)¹
Yield Class	Sorghum	Maize	Millet	Cowpea	Groundnut
A	1500 - 1770	1340 - 1740	1070 - 1270	300 - 355	790 - 1000
B1,2	1220 - 1460	1050 - 1440	860 - 1060	260 - 310	700 - 890
C1,2	980 - 1180	800 - 1180	670 - 880	220 - 270	630 - 800
D1,2,3	720 - 950	560 - 810	450 - 670	190 - 240	550 - 730
E1,2,3	470 - 680	260 - 550	250 - 450	140 - 190	410 - 620
F1,2,3	270 - 520	120 - 420	150 - 370	70 - 130	170 - 440
Unreliable	0	0	0	0	0
Dominantly Unsuitable	0 - 370	0 - 320	0 - 270	0 - 80	0 - 240
Entirely Unsuitable	0	0	0	0	0
¹ 80% of dependable yields for all mapping units in yield class fall within stated ranges.

The 4 major land systems can be further sub-divided, as shown in Table 3 below (which as well as the parent geology of the soils [basal soils] also indicates the landforms [landscape type] and the major agricultural enterprises for each zone).

Table 3. Land Systems and the associated soils, landscape types and agricultural enterprises

Land system	Basal soils	Landscape type	Major Agricultural Enterprises
Sandveld	Aeolian sand deposits	Flat to undulating plains, sometimes with sand dune systems and fossil river valleys and pans	Wildlife - mainly in reserves, but increasingly on fenced game ranches, Livestock - both on common (tribal) land and in fenced farms and ranches, Cropping - few, small and low output arable fields - mainly producing sorghum, groundnuts and melons, particularly on the lower slopes of ridges and sand dunes, and along the bottoms of drainage lines where the soils are not too salty Forest Reserves - on State Lands
	Superficial aeolian sand deposits on calcrete	Flat to almost flat plains
	Superficial aeolian sand deposits on sandstone and other sedimentary rocks	Almost flat to undulating plains
	Superficial aeolian sand deposits on basalt and sedimentary rocks	Flat plains with minor valleys and ridges to low hills
	Superficial aeolian sand deposits on dolomite and other sedimentary rocks	Almost flat to gently undulating plains
	Partly submerged aeolian sand deposits	Almost flat to gently undulating, with parallel sand dunes and/or major pans
Hardveld	Amphibole-rich, meta-basic rocks	Undulating plain with occasional hill ranges	Livestock - Communal (tribal) grazing areas and fenced freehold and leasehold ranches Wildlife - on game reserves and conservancies Forest Reserves - on State Lands Cropping - on fenced tribal land, and on leasehold farms, using lower lying areas with alluvial soils. Main crops are sorghum, melons, millet, dry beans/cow peas, groundnuts and sunflowers Also irrigated vegetables - mainly melons, maize, sorghum and millet, and dry beans
	Basalt	Plateaux, escarpments and almost flat plains with associated alluvium/colluvium
	Sandstone	Varied, from flat to undulating with infrequent hills and rock outcrops, through to hilly escarpments and fossil river valleys
	Granitic gneiss	Gently undulating to undulating with eroded valleys, to rugged hilly areas, with flat areas incised by drainage lines
	Dolerite	Hills with flat alluvium and almost flat to gently undulating pediments
	Dolomite and sedimentary rocks	Hills with associated almost flat to gently undulating pediments
	Acid volcanic lavas	Hills with undulating pediments
	Granite	Almost flat to gently undulating plain with rock outcrops (kopjies)
	Sedimentary rocks	Hilly dissected plateaux with pediments and associated alluvium
Lacustrine	Major lake and depression deposits	Flat to almost flat salt pans prone to flooding, plains with major pans, ancient lake beds with shorelines and plains, and fossil lagoons	Livestock - grazing on common (tribal) land Wildlife in common lands areas
	Superficial lacustrine deposits on sandstone	Flat to almost flat plains	Livestock - grazing on common (tribal) land Wildlife in common lands areas
	Vlei (seasonal marsh) deposits	Flat plains	Wildlife on State Lands Intensive Cropping on leasehold farms - mainly sunflower, cotton, maize, millet and sorghum
Alluvium	Recent alluvial deposits	Flat to almost flat river floodplains to fans, fans with sand ridges, delta floodplains and perennial swamps>	Cropping Small-scale village fields - using flood recession agriculture, growing vegetables, melons, maize, sorghum and millet, groundnuts and dry beans/cow peas Some commercial irrigation farming on freehold farms e.g. in the Limpopo and other river valley systems - growing citrus, and mixed vegetables Livestock - mainly common-land grazing on delta floodplain fringes Some dairying Commercial ostrich farming Some wildlife ranching Wildlife - on the delta floodplains
Alluvium	Fossil alluvial deposits	Flat to gently undulating river and delta floodplains

Vegetation
The vegetation of the country has been variously described and descriptions are given here according to current land systems, soil-vegetation associations and broad vegetation types.

Current Land Systems
Broad soil and vegetation types - mapping
The land systems of Botswana have been described in several major reports as well as in further reports on various parts of the country, with aspects relating to environment (e.g. DHV, 1980; Ecosurv, 1997; FAO 1990a; FAO, 1990b; FAO, 1991; Moyo et al. 1993), and agricultural production (Sims, 1981; FAO, 1992).

The main vegetation zones and grassland types
The main vegetation zones in the Kalahari Ecosystem are shown on the vegetation types map, Figure 8 (taken from Thomas and Shaw, 1991) which gives type descriptions of the different zones in the sandveld areas. The hardveld zones are described in the text in Appendix 1, as taken from FAO (1991), "Contribution to the Vegetation Classification of Botswana."

Regional vegetation distribution
Botswana has been divided into 13 regions after a rough comparison of its geology, geomorphology and botany (see Appendix 1, Figure 13). This section comprises a description of the vegetation of each region; general outlines of structural vegetation types and dominant and prominent species are mentioned. The vegetation of Botswana changes from the south-west to the north-east from (low) shrub savanna to tree savanna and woodland due to the increasing precipitation towards the north-east. Simultaneously an increase in tree species diversity is observed to the north-east. 70% of the country’s surface soils consist of wind-blown sand deposits. The most widespread sandveld association is found in the centre of the country and consists of Terminalia sericea, Lonchocarpus nelsii and Acacia erioloba. This reaches its southern limit around the Tropic of Capricorn. To the east it extends towards the hardveld and the northern boundary is formed by the mopane-line south of the Makgadikgadi Pan system. In the west the association is found along the Namibian border up to the Caprivi Strip. Typical sandveld species are Acacia haematoxylon, A. luederitzii, Boscia albitrunca, Terminalia sericea, Lonchocarpus nelsii, Bauhinia petersiana and Baphia massaiensis. Acacia haematoxylon is only found in the south-west of the country. Terminalia sericea and Lonchocarpus nelsii occur mainly north of the line Ncojane-Hukuntsi-Werda, while Bauhinia petersiana and Baphia massaiensis appear north of 20º South. The vegetation of the Chobe Region is also on sandveld. Offshoots of the miombo woodlands invade the country from Zambia and Zimbabwe. The vegetation in this area can be considered as a transition between the northern miombo woodlands and the southern Kalahari savannas. Representative hard wood species are: Baikiaea plurijuga, Pterocarpus angolensis, Guibourtia coleosperma, Amblygonocarpus andongensis, Erythrophleum africanum, Brachystegia sp., Julbernardia globiflora and Isoberlinia sp.

The vegetation of the hardveld in the east is more diverse than the sandveld, because of a larger range in parent material, soils and climate. The hardveld carries a variety of associations with most frequent species: Peltophorum africanum, Acacia tortilis, Combretum apiculatum, A. nigrescens and Colophospermum mopane in the north. The Makgadikgadi lacustrine system is mainly covered by grasslands with halophytic species, of which Odyssea paucinervis is dominant. Panicum coloratum var. Makgadikgadiensis and Cenchrus ciliaris also form a major part of the grass association. These two species have been developed as fodder grasses and are used in fodder species trials by the Department of Agricultural Research. Islands of Hyphaene palms are common, as well as Adansonia digitata (Baobab) trees, either solitary or in clumps.

The Okavango Delta forms a very complex ecosystem itself. Swamp, island and floodplain associations can be recognised. Most typical species are Cyperus papyrus, Phragmites australis and a variety of aquatic species in the swamps, Phoenix reclinata, Hyphaene petersiana, Ficus sycomorus, F. verruculosa, Garcinia livingstonei, Lonchocarpus capassa, Diospyros mespiliformis, Combretum imberbe and Syzygium guineense on the islands and grass- and sedgelands on the floodplains.

Colophospermum mopane (mopane) is one of the most typical tree and shrub species of hot, low-lying, eastern and southern Africa. It often occurs in pure stands and grows on a large variety of soils with textures ranging from sand to clay and depths from shallow to deep. Colophospermum mopane only occurs in northern of Botswana. A mopane-line has been established, which demarcates the occurrence of this species; a line between Martin's Drift and the Mokgware Hills forms the southern boundary. The mopane-line can be followed from the Mokgware Hills in north-eastern direction until a point west of Serule; from there it runs to the north-west to an area south of Sowa Pan and Ntwetwe Pan up to Lake Xau in the west. The mopane-line surrounds the Pans and the associated shoreline features in the west, which are free of the species. At 18.5º south, it runs eastwards to the Zimbabwean border. Just north of Stoffels Pan, mopane reoccurs and the line runs south of the Mababe Depression, via the eastern bank of the Thamalakane River towards Lake Ngami. From there it runs south of the Okavango Delta, surrounding the perennial swamp. Colophospermum mopane occurs along the delta fringes and on the fossil alluvium. The mopane-line excludes the dune system located along the Caprivi Strip (although the species is recorded in some interdune depressions, Smith 1984, op. cit.) and hits the Kwando River at the Namibian border.

Figure 8. Main Vegetation Zones in the Kalahari Ecosystem
[Click to view enlarged version]

FAO Vegetation Map 1991. The FAO (1991) vegetation map shows vegetation associations according to structure and dominant plant species associations. These are shown in Figure 9, and the general descriptions are given in Tables 4 and 5.

Figure 9. Vegetation Map of Botswana (FAO, 1991)
[Click to view enlarged version]
[Click to view table 4, legend for Figure 9]

Table 5. Vegetation Structure and Abbreviations

O	One/ semi-natural vegetation	SSD	Dense shrub savanna
S	Swamp	SSO	Open shrub savanna
GR	Grassland	SA	Savanna
FL	Forbland	SAD	Dense savanna
SH	Shrubland	SAO	Open savanna
SL	Low shrub savanna	ST	Tree savanna
SLD	Dense low shrub savanna	STD	Dense tree savanna
SLO	Open low shrub savanna	STO	Open tree savanna
SS	Shrub savanna	W	Woodland
		F	Forest

Figure 10. Some photographs of different vegetation systems in Botswana [Click to view full version]

1. Open grassland in the Western Kalahari	2. Okwa Valley		3. Acacia regenerating on old arable lands (in the hardveld) near Gaborone

4. Mopane (Colophospermum mopane), on badly eroded gravelly soils in the north-east Central District.	5. Bare sands and fringing salt tolerant grasses in the great Makgadikgadi Pans in N Central Botswana.		6. Wildebeest & zebra on the sweeping grasslands of the Western Makgadikgadi Pans area

7. Okavango Delta from the air - dry season		8. Sandveld Woodland in Central Botswana
Photos by Jeremy Burgess

4. RUMINANT LIVESTOCK PRODUCTION SYSTEMS

Ruminant livestock production systems are dominated by cattle and small-stock (goats and sheep). The sector is divided into traditional systems, mixed small holder systems and commercial producers.

Traditional systems are dominated by the cattle-post system, where a farmer, or group of farmers water livestock at a central watering point (most often a well, or a borehole), and the livestock wander freely over the grazing land around the watering point. There are some areas where transhumance is still practised, mainly in the eastern hardveld. People there usually practice crop and livestock production. Arable land is fenced, but livestock are permitted onto the land once the crops have been harvested. Many members of the family move from the villages to their lands during the ploughing, planting and harvesting period, and go home during the fallow season when livestock are run by herders who remain in the grazing areas.

Mixed small-holder systems are an integral part of the traditional livestock sector. People who live in areas where surface water is available, either on a year-round, or a seasonal basis, have some livestock and some small fields. This is most noticeable in the north-west, the north and the eastern parts where there are seasonal and perennial rivers. Much of the land is either freehold, or reserve land in areas where there is perennial water, so very little traditional production comes from watering livestock from perennial water sources.

Livestock are normally grazed in the dry areas away from the rivers, but watered from wells, either in dry, sandy river beds, or from wells. Crop production is normally from small plots on river banks which are thorn fenced, and watered from wells. Fields are sometimes in river-beds and are supplied with residual moisture in the river soils.

Landless systems are barely feasible in these modern times. This is because there is an increasing pressure for allocated land from people with expectations of a higher standard of living than is afforded under the traditional village life. The few, scattered small groups of semi-nomadic people have tended to become sedentary around boreholes provided by Government. Here they are provided with primary health, and education for their children. It is expected that much traditional knowledge that has been passed orally from generation to generation will be lost for coming generations. Without documentation, a whole knowledge-system based on natural products found in the range may soon be lost forever.

Commercial systems are practised mainly on leasehold and freehold land. Most commercial farmers are relatively wealthy as they have access to finance and the commercial marketing sector. Within the commercial sector, productions systems include intensive livestock production systems, such as feedlots. Stall-feeding, tethering and other systems are rarely used, except in one or two instances where dairy cows are kept in extremely dry conditions, and are fed with green silage and imported grains and fodder.

Production Statistics
The most recently available census material is from the Central Statistics Office, (CSO, 1996). Relevant Information shows that there were 121,317 agricultural holdings in 1996. Of these there were: 2,249,000 cattle in 59,588 cattle holdings, comprising:

Traditional Sector - Offtake = 7.8%; 59,509 in the traditional sector, owning approximately 2,190,000 head. There was a severe decline in cattle numbers and cattle holdings in 1996, due to slaughter of ~350,000 head in Ngamiland (NW Botswana), due to an outbreak of Contagious Bovine Pleuro-Pneumonia (CBPP). Approximately 1270 farmers lost all their cattle.

Commercial Sector - Offtake = ~14-18%; 79 respondents in the commercial sector owning about 58,505 head; It was suggested, however, that some 141 commercial farmers did not respond to the Government Questionnaire, and these non-respondents owned a further 88,465 head of cattle.

Figure 11 shows the fluctuation in livestock numbers over time, and Table 6 draws on the FAO statistical databases to show livestock numbers (slightly different than the 1996 data quoted from CSO [1996]), production and import and export data from 1996-2005.

Figure 11. Livestock Population
[Click to view enlarged version]

Table 6. Botswana statistics for livestock numbers, beef, veal, sheep, goat meat and milk production,
beef and veal exports, cattle imports and mutton and lamb and milk imports for the period 1996-2005 (FAO Database 2006)

Item	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Cattle nos. (,000,000)	2.25	2.21	2.35	2.58	2.50	2.50	3.06	3.10	3.10	3.10
Sheep nos. (,000)	349	409	393	369	370	306	273	300	300	300
Goat nos. (,000,000)	2.21	2.62	2.20	2.00	1.90	1.89	1.68	1.70	1.85	1.95
Beef & veal prod. (,000Mt)	44.1	38.2	37.3	26.6	29.0	33.8	31.0	26.9	31.0	31.0
Sheep meat prod. (,000Mt)	1.61	1.92	1.78	1.75	1.82	2.10	1.96	1.82	1.81	1.81
Goat meat prod. (,000 Mt)	6.12	7.08	6.00	5.52	5.28	5.28	4.68	4.68	5.10	5.40
Milk prod. (,000 Mt)	98.4	100.1	98.2	101.8	105.4	105.4	105.4	105.4	105.4	105.4
Beef & veal exports (,000 mt)	13.43	15.80	18.0	14.6	15.3	20.5	8.6	9.0	10.5	n.r.
Cattle exports head	1153	886	427	91	78	99	7	44	0	n.r.
Cattle imports (,000)	13.95	10.01	13.39	13.09	14.45	3.33	0.15	1.47	2.00	n.r.
Milk, fresh imports(,000Mt)	14.58	25.02	17.04	82.14	49.07	49.67	20.93	22.38	22.38	n.r.
Mutton & lamb imports (Mt)	321	282	202	455	305	777	816	554	554	n.r.

n.r. = no record

Goats. 2,205 Million goats [1996 data] in 89,603 holdings, comprising: Traditional Sector - Offtake = 7.7%; 89,546 in the traditional sector, owning approximately 2,190,000 head. Commercial Sector - Offtake = ~14-18%; 57 respondents in the commercial sector owning about 5,636 head. It was suggested, however, that some 103 commercial farmers did not respond to the Government Questionnaire, and these non-respondents owned a further 11,3245 head of goats.

Sheep 349,000 sheep [1996 data] in 27,227 holdings, comprising:
Traditional Sector- Offtake = 6.7%; 27,236 in the traditional sector, owning approximately 344,811 head.

Commercial Sector - Offtake = ~14-18%;41 respondents in the commercial sector owning about 3,757 head. It was suggested, however, that some 79 commercial farmers did not respond to the Government Questionnaire, and these non-respondents owned a further ~8,000 head of sheep.

CamelsThere are few hundred (~300) camels in the country. These are survivors of stock that were imported in the early 1900s for police patrols in the south-western desert areas.

Non-Ruminant Livestock This refers mainly to donkeys and horses, but includes pigs. Equines are important as transport in rural areas. Donkeys are also used for ploughing and pulling carts which are mainly used to carry water and firewood. Donkeys; 335,809 head in 54,140 holdings. Horses; 4,707 head over 1,123 holdings (that responded to the CSO questionnaire). (The previous census had recorded much higher numbers of holders and animals with 34,650 head, over ~8,640 holdings reported.) Pigs 2,658 head, over an unspecified number of holdings.

A summary of beef statistics and production systems
There are currently around 2.5 to 3.1 Million head of cattle in Botswana: two cattle per member of the human population. There are also nearly as many goats. [FAO figures in Table 6 are somewhat lower]

Drought Effects on the Cattle Population
In the late 1970s there were around 3,000,000 head, of which 1,000,000 died during the droughts of the early to mid 1980s. However, the numbers soon rebuilt, much of which can be attributed to an expansion of the drilling of boreholes in areas which were only historically used seasonally, under high rainfall conditions. This expansion was followed by another short, but extreme drought in the early 1990s, which accounted for another die-off of around 1,000,000 head of cattle.

Stocking Rates
On a country-wide basis stocking rates are highly variable, ranging from around 8 ha. per livestock unit (LSU), in the higher rainfall areas of the south-east, to as much as 60 ha. per LSU in the arid western areas. Stocking rates vary with climatic cycles, increasing in high rainfall periods, and declining dramatically during drought periods.

Production Systems
Beef is produced in two distinct sectors: freehold land owners produce commercially, and the traditional sector which operates on communal land. About 60-70 % of the national herd is owned by about 10 % of producers from the commercial sector; the remainder is owned by 90 % of producers who have small herds ranging from about 10 to 40 head of cattle.

Commercial Production
Beef production is generally off the range, where animals are weaned into fattening camps, and either sold directly to the abattoir at around 2-3 years, or finished in feedlots. Many commercial ranchers, nowadays, favour a three-way cross using Brahman, Hereford and one other European breed. Commercial cows are crossed with pure-bred bulls, to maintain a uniform calf crop. All bull-calves, and poorer heifers are weaned and grown out for slaughter; while the best heifers are kept as replacements. Heifers generally calve when 27 to 33 months. Breeding cows are generally culled when they fail to produ