the role of tourism in natural resource management in the okavango ...

subsistence arable farms together with a relatively active livestock sub-sector. Since
then, the economic importance of the agricultural sector, with respect to GDP, has
declined sharply (Republic of Botswana National Master Plan for Agricultural
Development, 2000). According to provisional figures, agricultural GDP declined at
an average annual rate of 1,5 percent from 1991/92 to 2001/02. The improved
management of the agricultural sector is a priority for the Botswana Government,
owing to its key role in providing employment. A lack of rainfall in early 2003,
however, heralded poor results. Given an area of 325000 ha of arable land, only 14
105 ha had been ploughed by January 2003, which was less than five percent (Van
Buren, 2003).
In June 1998, the Botswana Government formulated a plan, now known as the
National Master Plan for Arable Agriculture and Dairy Development (NAMPAADD),
aimed at increasing productivity and at guiding investment to protect the country's
fragile rangelands which were at risk from overgrazing. The scheme focused on
diversification into fields such as horticulture, forestry, game keeping and bee
keeping. The national budget for 2000101 allocated five million Pula to implement
projects under NAMPAADD, including demonstration dairy and vegetable farms and
a strategy for reusing wastewater for irrigation in this generally dry country.
NAMPAADD's risk-cover policy, aimed at insuring producers against production
losses resulting from unexpected extreme natural conditions, was due to be tested in
2003/04, as the drought conditions prevailing in 2003 would test the feasibility of this
risk-cover policy to the limit (Van Buren, 2004).
The national cattle herd doubled during the first 16 years after independence. This
was as a result of improved beef export prices, the expansion of available grazing
through the drilling of new boreholes, and the establishment of effective disease
control, based on a system of cordon fences and vaccination, which since 1981 has
kept most of the country free from Foot and Mouth Disease. The success of the
cordon fence system (in which huge areas of land are fenced off to separate cattle
from wildlife), in controlling the spread of disease, generated a lucrative market
within the European Union (EU). The EU offered preferential terms and significant
price subsidies (in Botswana's case a 92 percent levy rebate, with a quota of 18 910
metric tons of beef per year) as long as the Lome Convention's stringent disease­
control criteria were met. However, the cordon fence system has generated
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