The Botswana Institute for Development Policy Analysis (BIDPA) is hosting a Policy Dialogue on 28th, July 2025, in Gaborone.
The theme of the dialogue is “Rethinking Botswana’s Vegetable Import Ban and Implications for Food Security”. This event will bring together experts from different spheres and will serve as a platform for multi-stakeholder engagement on both the implementation and lifting of the ban. It presents an opportunity for policy makers, implementers, farmers, and consumers, to evaluate the effectiveness of the vegetable import ban and explore sustainable measures to enhance vegetable production in Botswana.
Although the ban was earmarked to promote self-sufficiency, policy makers have acknowledged that it has not been effective in boosting local production as envisioned. This was in part due to the lack of capacity of local farmers, as well as insufficient investment in the sector by the government.
Since its inception, the vegetable import ban has also raised concerns about potential negative impacts on regional trade relations between Botswana and other countries, in particular South Africa. In light of this, Botswana, through the new government, lifted the import ban on vegetables in December 2024. This lifting of the vegetable import ban, which is split into phases, is expected to address vegetable pricing and supply challenges, while fostering regional agricultural relations between Botswana and other countries. What is unknown though, is whether this lifting will achieve its intended objectives.
Given these dynamics, there is therefore a need for a holistic, all-encompassing policy dialogue to evaluate the effectiveness of the vegetable import ban together with its lifting and explore options for boosting local vegetable production while maintaining healthy regional trade relations.