Farming – Agribusiness & Value Chains · Editorial

By Moakanyi Magazine · Global Issue · June 2026

Self-reliance gets dismissed as romantic until the supply chain it was meant to replace breaks. Each disruption to imported inputs revives interest in local seed systems, and the swings tracked in the FAO's food price index are a reminder of how exposed an import-dependent farmer really is. When the seed or fertiliser does not arrive, the planting window closes regardless, and no amount of money spent late can recover a season missed.

Botswana imports a large share of its agricultural inputs, which means a global disruption can reach all the way to a Botswana field at planting time. Local seed systems – varieties adapted to the country's dry conditions, multiplied and held within reach – are a hedge against that distance, and a way of keeping the next harvest under local control rather than at the mercy of a far-off port.

Resilience built close to home

Locally adapted seed is not only a supply-security measure; it is often a better agronomic fit. Varieties bred for Botswana's heat and limited rainfall can outperform generic imports under the conditions farmers actually face, while reducing the foreign exchange spent on inputs that may not suit the soil. The constraint is capacity – the breeding, multiplication, storage and distribution that turn a good local variety into seed a farmer can buy reliably each season – and building it is slow, but it is what converts post-shock interest into a standing resilience that holds through the next disruption.

Seed grown close to home is supply a closed border cannot interrupt.

So the renewed interest in local seed systems is more than a reaction to the last disruption. For Botswana, it is a route to inputs that are both more secure and better suited to the land. The country that invests in its own seed capacity buys insurance against the next supply shock – and a better-adapted crop in the seasons between.

Sources: FAO