Enhancing Agricultural Monitoring in Botswana

1. COUNTRY REPORT: BOTSWANA PRESENTER: MS. BASUTI MATHANGWANE EMPLOYER: Min of Agriculture EMAIL: bbolo@gov.bw/basutibolo@gmail.com TELEPHONE: 0026772415845 AfriGEOSS-EOpower-GEOGLAMSouthern Africa Sub-Region Workshop on Agriculture . 8 - 9 MAY, 2014, PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA

2. MINISTRY DETAILS • Name of Country: Botswana • Name of Institute: Ministry of Agriculture • Postal Address: Private Bag 003, Gaborone • Physical address: Headquarter is located Plot Number: 4701, • Station Road, Gaborone • Telephone: +267-368 9000 • Internet: http://www.moa.gov.bw

3. Ministry of Agriculture `s Mandate To develop a sustainable and competitive agricultural sector by: improving farm incomes, generating employment opportunities and raw materials for agric businesses; conserving agricultural natural resources, through the promotion and adoption of appropriate technologies and management practices. VISION Attain national food security and global competitiveness in agricultural products MISSION To improve agricultural productivity through technology development and transfer, diversification and commercialization, in order to promote food security. .

4. MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE STRUCTURE For information flow the Ministry has a website: www.moa.gov.bw and a Call Centre: 1775 to complement other means of information flow.

5. Organization challenges • The Organization is facing serious challenges of lack of capacity and monitoring system to deliver services to farmers due to; • Shortage of skilled manpower • Shortage of updated data for monitoring • Lack of Agricultural monitoring resources • Lack of Agricultural Monitoring System . • Climate change • .

6. Human capacity Available staff & technical level at the existing Organisation(2008) :MOA (Department of Crop Production)

7. EARTH OBSERVATION (EO) DATA AVAILABILITY EO Data available: • Satellite imagery (1995 -1997) at 250000 scale.. • Ortho photographs (2002) at 1: 80000 scale. • AMESD agricultural services products; rainfall, NDVI etc. Data Acquisition: • The ortho-photographs are flown after every 5 – 10 years for the whole country. • Urban areas and project areas are flown as required. • Satellite images are at cost. Data Processing: • Visual interpretation • Commercial GIS applications • Open source GIS application

8. Data use for decision making Required Information: spatial , digital and hard copies with high accuracy/ quality Such as; • Topographic data for base maps • Land use • Soils and suitability • Crops data • Digital elevation model • Vegetation • Land cover Formats: digital/ hardcopy

9. Data use for decision making • User needs Priorities for application development • Needs Funding, technology transfer, technical assistance/skilled • manpower. • The organization needs up to date satellite imagery and aerial • photographs. • There is also a need for image processing software and for • processing geographic data.

10. Data use for decision making • Capacity building in term of training staff on earth • observation techniques is required. • To come up with a crop yield forecasting and measuring • model using remote sensing data and other sources. • Development of databases and predictable models for • decision support mechanism • Remote Sensing & GIS facilities and products.

11. Data/Internet- Infrastructure Organization`s Non - Spatial and Spatial data management: • System and Packages for spatial information : GIS, Esri products • Formats of (spatial)information: Shape files, Arc coverages, database files • Hardware ,INTERNET & network: are available in all Ministry Districts Offices country wide. • Image processing software: limited • Formats of non-spatial information: reports, bulletins, WEBSITE Accessibility to the web: Good network

12. Data resourcing • Existing protocols for data sharing: On request • Data sharing policy: No policy, only written requests are required • Data availability: Data is available for free from other sources • Ortho photographs are at cost.

13. overview on the Agricultural Monitoring (System) The ministry has a variety of Agricultural Monitoring Systems created using the in situ data and earth observation data sources from within the ministry and from its Stake-holders. The systems are not integrated. • The following systems are available: • Livestock Identification and Trace-back Systems • Crops Farmers Information System • Farming calendar • Livestock calendar • Weather Forecasting and Early Warning System etc

14. overview on the Agricultural Monitoring (Gaps) • Lack of up to date high resolution images. • High costs of image processing software and digital satellite imagery • prohibits the application. • Absence of suitable and up to date database. • Lack of capacity to utilize remote sensed data. • Shortage of skilled manpower.

15. Overview on the Agricultural Monitoring ( Plans) • The Ministry is in the process of starting to use the Government • wide GIS Enterprise License. • The enterprise will assist in reducing software annual license fees. • The Ministry would like to establish modeling systems (such as crop • yield forecasting, soil erosion / degradation etc.). • The ministry plans to start a centralized Agricultural Information • System to manage its data and for easy data sharing and transfer.

16. Proposed AfriGEOSS point of Contact & contact details: • Ms Basuti Mathangwane (Principal Agriculture Scientific Officer – GIS) • Ministry of Agriculture • Department of Crop Production • Private Bag 003 • Gaborone • Botswana • Tel: +267 3689380 mobile: +267 72415845 • Email: bbolo@gov.bw ; basutibolo@gmail.com

17. THANK YOU