Analysis of Constraints and Opportunities in Dairy Production in Botswana: Producer’s Perspectives

Dairy enterprise has been a major source of employment and income generation in most of the economies worldwide. Botswana government has also identified dairy as one of the agricultural sub-sectors towards diversification of the mineral dependent economy of the country. Despite the government’s efforts, dairy sector in Botswana has not grown satisfactorily and therefore the local demand of milk and milk products is met by imports which increase the import bill of the country by millions per annum. The huge gap between local demand and production of milk and milk products clearly indicated that there are not only constraints but also; opportunities exist in this sub sector of agriculture. Therefore, this study was an attempt to identify constraints and opportunities in dairy production in Botswana. The possible strategies to mitigate the constraints were also identified. This quantitative study adopted an exploratory survey research design. A pilot survey followed by a final survey was conducted for data collection. Based on the information from pilot survey, a four point likert’s scale type questionnaire was constructed, validated and tested for its reliability to be used in final survey. The data for the final survey was collected from purposively selected twenty five dairy farmers in Botswana. The statistical analytical tools of mean, standard deviation and Chi Square test were employed to analyze data. Among the twelve constraints identified; high feed costs, feed shortage and unavailability, lack of technical support, lack of skilled manpower, high prevalence of pests and diseases and, lack of dairy related technologies were the major constraints in dairy production. Grain feed production, roughage feed production, manufacturing of dairy feed, establishment of milk processing industry and, development of transportation systems were the major opportunities among the eight opportunities identified. Increasing production of animal feed locally, increasing roughage feed production locally, provision of subsidy on animal feed, easy access to sufficient financial support, training of the farmers and, effective control of pests and diseases were identified as the major strategies to mitigate the constraints. Moreover, the opportunities can be realised by adopting the strategies to mitigate the constraints in the dairy production. It was recommended that the identified constraints and opportunities as well as the strategies to mitigate the constraints need to be carefully considered by the stakeholders especially, policy makers during the formulation and implementation of the policies for the sustainable growth and development of dairy sector in Botswana.