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

predominantly produce for own consumption and sell whatever surpluses are
available. Commercial farms presently comprise only eight percent of the country's
agricultural areas. Botswana's food requirements are increasingly purchased by
export earnings from the mining sector, although beef export earnings still
adequately cover the cost of basic cereal imports (Republic of Botswana Statistical
Bulletin, 2001; http://www.botswana-online...htm).
Food security at the household and national levels is the cornerstone of the
Botswana Government's National Agricultural Policy. This is, naturally, related to the
issue of domestic food production. Presently, farmers succeed in supplying only
about 20 percent of the demand for grains, 15 percent of the demand for vegetables,
25 percent of the demand for fruits, and only 3 percent of the demand for dairy
products, in an average year. Moreover, the yearly production of grains (mainly
sorghum and maize) has varied considerably since 1980 as a result of frequent
droughts, from 8 200 tons per year to 175 000 tons per year, with a mean annual
production of 46 000 tons per year (Republic of Botswana National Master Plan for
Agricultural Development, 2000).
In the arable agricultural sector, as with beef, commercial farmers provide a
disproportionate share of crop production. It is estimated that just 100 commercial
farms accounted for 34 percent of total output of sorghum, maize, millet, beans and
pulses in 1999 (Republic of Botswana Agricultural Statistics, 1996; Van Buren,
2004). In Botswana an estimated 1,2 million hectares of land is reserved for the
planting of crops, of which 387 400 hectares are owned within the traditional sector
and 819 500 hectares within the commercial sector. There are an estimated 121 000
agricultural holders in the traditional sector and only 100 holders in the commercial
sector. The actual commercial sector figure is estimated to be slightly higher due to
the lack of cooperation by some commercial farmers who refused to take part in the
2001 national agricultural survey (Republic of Botswana Statistical Bulletin, 2001;
Van Buren, 2004).
Rain fed crop production is the dominant form of agriculture practised in the
traditional sector. The average size of farms in the traditional sector is five hectares.
Of the 85 percent of small-scale farms producing crops in Botswana, almost one­
third covered less than three hectares, and only 6,8 percent were larger than the ten
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