Aimed at curbing poverty, the President’s backyard garden initiative has got off the ground. However, there is a growing belief that a political agenda lies behind the rhetoric about ending poverty
The intention of President Ian Khama’s backyard garden initiative is noble enough. It aims to eradicate poverty. Covering 57 constituencies, it will cost the government P200 million. To buoy the effort, the government has been encouraging Batswana to venture into horticulture.
Mosarwa Boemo, aged 50, is one of the 200 beneficiaries of the gardening initiative. But unfamiliar with gardening, Boemo enlisted her son to go through a crash course on her behalf. As they heeded the call, they were looking at cultivating 9m by 13m plots. Now mother and son grow onions, spinach and rape in a net shaded garden comprising seven of these raised plots.
For Boemo, the government intervention has relieved her family of the burden of buying vegetables and meat amid soaring food prices that have not been helped by the eroded buying power of the pula.
She waters her garden twice a day in the morning and in the evening using drip irrigation, a method which allows water to go directly to the plant without wasting any. As a result, her crops generally look good.  
Boemo however does not yet know how much she is likely to generate per month from selling her greens. “I have begun selling a bunch of rape at P5.00 but it is too early to say whether I will reap returns,” she says.
This is one project which both the President and the Minister of Presidential Affairs and Public Administration, Mokgweetsi Masisi have plenty of faith in. To the government, it is no pipe dream that poverty can be eradicated through backyard gardens. They seem undeterred by the fact that even first world countries have not managed to achieve this feat.
At any rate, Masisi wants the media to heap praise on this particular initiative that his government has brought before Batswana. It would pain him if the media were to report negatively about programmes meant for poverty alleviation.  Their positive coverage, he says, would amount to contributing to poverty eradication.
It remains unclear, though, why the government seems to have a set of new programmes which all of a sudden are modeled along constituency lines.
Masisi took the media on a tour of backyard gardens in the South East South constituency recently.
No sooner had he arrived back in Gaborone than the area Member of Parliament (MP) punched holes in the initiative.
“Is this new way of doing things going to cascade into development projects?┬áIs the government going to build clinics in constituencies not per district as has been the case? How exactly is the backyard garden programme structured? Are the beneficiaries expected to pay back the set up costs?” Motlhale asked, inferring that he smells ploy and deceit in the President’s initiatives.
“My contention is that the programme is not well thought through. It’s a half baked product hurriedly put together to achieve political expediency. I suppose these are the kind of programmes that Honourable Ramadeluka Seretse was referring to at the last budget Pitso. You will notice that unlike other government programs, this one is constituency based as opposed to being district based. This is the hallmark of all the President’s pet projects,” argues MP South Odirile Motlhale.
“Take for instance the constituency tournaments, music competitions, etc, all of them are targeting constituencies so as to secure votes. I can guarantee you that this programme is going to be rolled out in opposition held and marginal constituencies first as a strategy to ingratiate the moribund ruling party to the voters ahead of the 2014 general elections,” Motlhale predicts.
The MP argues that the country’s National┬áDevelopment Plan is district based and the country’s Social Welfare programmes must be tailored the same way.
Motlhale has serious reservations that the backyard gardening initiative will be sustainable.
“Is there a business plan? If yes then, how much revenue per month is the project projected to bring? What are the envisaged market neighbours or retail stores? What happens to the infrastructure in case the beneficiary gets a job or passes on? Will it be uprooted and installed at the next beneficiary’s plot. Is there a maintenance programme for the equipment?” asks the legislator.
Motlhale suggests that the P4 million per constituency could be used in a more sustainable manner. “The beneficiaries could get a farm and develop it along commercial lines. They would be employees or shareholders and hire a qualified manager to help them run it professionally. This way there would be continuity in case any of the beneficiaries ceases to be a member for whatever reason,” he says.
