Botswana’s food security is under pressure as grain farmers warn that repeated payment failures by the Botswana Agricultural Marketing Board (BAMB) are pushing producers towards bankruptcy and threatening the sustainability of the country’s agricultural sector.
Documents seen by Sunday Standard show that Pandamatenga farmers alone are owed approximately P100 million by BAMB with some farmers reportedly waiting as long as four months beyond the contractual 30-day payment period for grain already delivered.
This emerges in an urgent letter from Pandamatenga Commercial Farmers Association (PCFA) Chairman, Carel Viljoen, who has called for immediate government intervention ahead of the September 30 deadline for farmers to settle their seasonal production loans. The letter was addressed to Chief Executive Officer of BAMB, Lilian Costa Scheepers and copied to Dr Mokganedi Mokopasetso, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Lands and Agriculture; Dr Tsokologo Alex Kganetsano, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance; Omphile Sehurutse, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Trade and Entrepreneurship; and Kenalekgotla Sebolao, Chairman of the Botswana Grain Producers Association.
Viljoen says farmers are again carrying the financial consequences of BAMB’s liquidity problems despite having fulfilled their side of the bargain by delivering grain.’Investor confidence is ZERO. Not low, ZERO. It simply does not pay to farm anymore,’ Viljoen states in the letter.
According to the farmers, the crisis is no longer simply a dispute over delayed payments. It is becoming a threat to the viability of the producers expected to supply the country with food.
‘Farmers are businesspeople, and in effect, investors in Botswana’s agricultural sector,’ Viljoen says adding that producers borrow heavily, employ workers and take substantial production and market risks to produce food for the country. The farmers say input costs are rising while grain prices continue to fall, creating a squeeze that is becoming increasingly difficult to survive.’Farmers are paying to farm, not being paid to farm,’ the letter says.
The latest crisis also threatens to repeat a pattern witnessed during the 2024/2025 production season. During that season, Pandamatenga farmers delivered more than 50,000 tonnes of sorghum, together with thousands of tonnes of cowpeas and maize. BAMB subsequently struggled for approximately eight months to secure sufficient funding to pay farmers.
The letter shows that by December 2025, commercial farmers had received only 74 percent of the money owed to them, with the remaining 26 percent only paid in April 2026. Farmers are now warning that the same cycle is unfolding again. Deliveries began in April 2026, meaning some producers have already exceeded BAMB’s contractual 30-day payment period by as much as four months.
According to Viljoen, delayed payments have left suppliers unpaid, affected salaries and seasonal workers, increased overdraft and bank charges, caused loan repayments to fall overdue and left farmers entering new production seasons without adequate cash flow. Small-scale farmers have also been affected, including their ability to meet household expenses, school fees and purchase inputs. The financial damage is significant. One Pandamatenga farmer alone has reportedly incurred approximately P3.8 million in interest attributed to BAMB’s late payments.
The situation was made worse by severe flooding in Pandamatenga at the beginning of the current production cycle. Despite significant crop and input losses, farmers replanted using borrowed funds and personal reserves, citing their commitment to Botswana’s food security.
Now, with the next planting season approaching, farmers want government to provide certainty. They are demanding confirmation that outstanding payments will be settled by September 30, while also calling for urgent consideration of partial payments to enable them to settle suppliers, service production loans and prepare for the coming season. They are also challenging the continued accumulation of interest on production loans while farmers wait for BAMB to pay them. The farmers argue that they have delivered their crops and fulfilled their contractual obligations, yet continue to incur interest because BAMB has not settled its obligations. NDB has extended the loan repayment deadline to the end of October 2026, but farmers have been advised that the interest rate will increase by one percentage point for the extension. Viljoen says the situation presents a fundamental contradiction in government’s stated objective of developing a private-sector-led, export-driven agricultural sector. The farmers are also demanding clarity on national crop planning, BAMB procurement plans, market demand and proposed rules governing access to alternative markets.
‘A sustainable national grain sector cannot operate without clarity on where farmers may sell their products and under what conditions,’ the letter states. The farmers say they have remained loyal to BAMB despite payment delays lasting more than a year in the previous season and have again delivered their grain in good faith. But they are now approaching another production cycle carrying debt and interest on grain already delivered but not yet paid for. The farmers want a written response before September 30 covering the payment solution and other outstanding grain-sector issues.
BAMB had not responded to Sunday Standard queries at time of going to press.