Background

CRIDF’s Rapid Advisory Service (RAS) provides fast-tracked advice to CRIDF stakeholders in the fields of water, climate and water-related infrastructure. All requests undergo a rapid screening process and to be considered by the RAS team, the support requested must meet several criteria including, water-related, transboundary, pro-poor, climate-resilient, and operational in the Southern African Development Community and limited to support that requires no more than one month’s inputs.

The request for RAS 18: Baseline assessment of identified horticulture farmers in the Maun/Okavango Delta Tourism Cluster, came through the Ngamiland Council of Non-Governmental Organisations (NCONGO), which is an umbrella body of Ngamiland (Ngami & Okavango Sub district)- based NGOs. The organisation is based in Maun, Botswana, and works with local stakeholders and communities on issues of Community Based Natural Resources Management, Youth Empowerment and Environmental Conservation for sustainable social and economic development. NCONGO recently entered into a partnership with the Permanent Okavango River Basin Commission (OKACOM), facilitated by the UNDP-GEF Strategic Action Program (SAP) Implementation Project. In this partnership, NCONGO acts as the local implementing agency supporting implementation processes of the Maun/Okavango Delta horticulture demonstration project. This project aims to link horticultural production with the higher-end/up-market tourism value chain and other local markets. This initiative is funded through the UNDP-GEF programme, and aims to address the OKACOM Strategic Action Program, specifically the Thematic Area 1 ‘Livelihoods and Social Economic Development’.

Given CRIDF’s KAZA+ Value Chain Analysis and Proposed Partnerships study (2016 – 2017) directly aligns with the Maun/Okavango Delta horticulture demonstration project, CRIDF was invited to participate in, and present at, a stakeholder workshop in Maun on the 20^th February that was organised by OKACOM through the UNDP-GEF SAP project. As an output of this workshop, CRIDF developed a potential model for the project, comprised of high-level components and activities aimed at addressing current challenges in the horticulture sub-sector, with specific focus on enhancing links between horticultural produce and higher-end/up-market tourism value chain. The key components of the model involved:

• Organizing the farmers
• Identifying pilot champion farmers (includes infrastructure development)
• Developing a service and training centre (with a fresh produce outlet) – (includes infrastructure development)
• Capacity building of farmers
• Engaging the market – creating awareness

Following this, OKACOM/NCONGO submitted a request for further support and input into the project preparation process. Specifically, they identified the need to conduct a profile (at farm level) of farm-specific barriers affecting local horticulture production. The technical support was requested to conduct a baseline assessment of identified champion farmers/farms and community-based farming projects with regards to the following:

1. Current production status/levels
2. Possible production targets

• Current market challenges and barriers to absorbing local produce

1. Capacity requirements to achieve desired targets, e.g. water infrastructure, cropping calendars, soil fertilisation needs, watering requirements, other inputs, markets/demand etc
2. Set in place a capacity building plan for champion farmers and community based farming projects.

The activities and deliverables to achieve this within the limited time frame available were as follows:

1. Preparatory Work
   • Initial engagement with NCONGO and OKACOM-UNDP
   • Arranging meetings
2. In-field work
   • Collective meeting/workshop with identified local farmers
   • Visits to identified community farms and preliminary selected pilot farmers
   • Engagement with suppliers and tourism facilities to validate findings of earlier CRIDF work
   • Engagement with KAZA Secretariat
3. Reporting

KAZA’s recently appointed Executive Secretary and Botswana Country Liaison Officer were informed of the project, but unfortunately both were unable to attend the Maun workshop. Efforts will be made to introduce the OKACOM-UNDP team to the KAZA Secretariat, to determine possible synergies – both on this project, and other interventions in the Okavango.

Pilot farmers identified by Ministry of Agricultural Development and Food security, OKACOM UNDP/ NCONGO

Selection of pilot farmers

OKACOM-UNDP with the technical guidance of the Maun Demonstration Project Technical Reference Group developed the following list of profiling criteria for pilot farmers, which was then provided to the Ministry of Agricultural Development and Food Security in Maun to use for identifying potential small-scale farmers in the Maun surrounding areas:

• Name of the Farm
• Location of The Farm (District/Village).
• Principal owner of the farm.
• Gender of principal farm owner.
• Age group of the principal farm owner (Youth / Middle age / Senior).
• Size of Farm (Ha).
• Farm Fencing status (fenced or not fenced, by fence type)
• Actual Size of farm (ha) fenced off.
• Actual Size of Farm debushed (Ha).
• Current area under cultivation (ha)
• Estimated Average Yield per ha (Ton)
• Estimated Monthly Farm output in sales (in Pula) 2017/2018
• Existing Farming records being kept (Inventories, income, Marketing plan, cropping plan)
• Farm Type and Use (Irrigated crops, Livestock, Rain-fed crop farming).
• Farm Owner Relevant Agriculture Qualification
• Staff Relevant Agriculture Qualification
• Existing Developed of farm infrastructures (electricity, road access by type)
• Main Water source used on the farm (Borehole, River, Dam, water bowser, wellfield, perennial river etc)
• Number of permanent Employees on the farm (Male and Females).
• Security of tenure to the farm (if leasing state number of years of lease).
• Number of years farming on the current farm.
• Financial interest on the farm (state start and end year).
• How often farmer visit the farm per month (Fulltime, Part-time: farm management)
• Farm Management by Owner (Fulltime, Part-time?)

The rationale for the selection criteria was to find farmers who have already shown initiative, currently engaged in horticulture and have invested into their farms.  In consultation with the Demonstration Project Technical Reference Group; a weighting scale was developed for each of the criteria and each of 34 farmers profiled by Ministry of Agricultural Development and Food Security were then scored accordingly, which resulted in a pre-selection of Pilot Champion Farmers. The pre-selected farmers were then visited for ground verification before a final recommendation could be made.