Botswana Ditches Diamond Addiction: Land Reform and Farming Push Aim to Create Jobs

Botswana is scrapping its old model of counting land plots and is now betting on agriculture and the private sector to fix its economy and create jobs.

The government has launched a major overhaul of how it manages land, shifting focus from simply distributing plots to ensuring the land is used to create businesses and employment [85213]. The Ministry of Lands and Agriculture says the old system had "structural failures" and the new policy will prioritize "economic viability" [85213].

Alongside the land reform, officials are pushing cooperative farming projects to make agriculture the country's top economic driver [128898]. Assistant Minister of Trade and Entrepreneurship Baratiwa Mathoothe stated that these collaborative initiatives could make farming the leading contributor to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) [128898]. Currently, Botswana's economy depends heavily on diamond mining [85213][128898].

In a separate move, parliament is debating a new national budget for 2026/27 that shifts away from government-led spending [74867]. The goal is to build a private-sector-led economy to tackle high youth unemployment and shortages in healthcare [74867]. The new approach emphasizes job creation and stricter fiscal discipline [74867].