http://www.fao.org/globalsoilpartnership This presentation was made during the regional conference on the Eastern and Southern Africa Soil Partnership which took place in Nairobi, Kenya 25-27 March 2013. This presentation was made by Kabelo Mate and presents the status of soil resources in Botswana and the needs and the priorities for its sustainable management. ©FAO: http://www.fao.org

2. Presentation Outline
 Introduction
 Soil resource status
 Soil health and land husbandry
 Thank you

3. Introduction
 Botswana is a land locked country covering an area of
582,000 square kilometers
B ’ li i i id R i f ll i l  Botswana’s climate is semi‐arid. Rainfall is low,
unreliable, unevenly distributed and highly variable
from year to year from year to year.
 Drought is a recurrent phenomenon, most rivers are
seasonal hence water is a scarce resource

4. Introduction Contn.
 Botswana’s population is approximately 2 million
people
Th l i i d i h f  The population is concentrated in the eastern part of
the country where arable farming is possible on
account of better and more favorable climatic and soil account of better and more favorable climatic and soil
conditions
 Agriculture still provides a livelihood for more than g p
80% of the population but supplies only 50% of food
needs and accounts for only 3% of GDP

5. Soil resource status
 Soil variations create geographical differences in plant
and animal life due to climate
Ab hi d f h i d b d  About two thirds of the country is covered by sandy
soils which are infertile. These are the red and grey
desert soils on the Kalahari sandsdesert soils on the Kalahari sands.

6. Soil resource status cont.
 The eastern areas have hills and drainage depressions
which feed the Limpopo river.
Th il i l d l d l l  The soils are mainly sandy loams to sandy clay loams,
with shallow skeletal soils where heavy, sporadic
rainfall washes newly formed soil materials into low rainfall washes newly formed soil materials into low
lying areas and down drainage lines. The soils are thus
mainly alluvial and /or colluvial.

7. Soil resource status cont.
 The west is covered almost entirely by deep sands
forming the Kalahari Desert which accounts for about
two thirds of Botswana and comprises sandy soils to two‐thirds of Botswana and comprises sandy soils to
120m depth.
 The area supports manly scrub patches of short close‐The area supports manly scrub patches of short, close
canopy woodland, scattered shrubs and grassland and
there are virtually no perennial open surface water
bodies.

8. Soil resource status cont.
 Water is obtained by drilling boreholes to a depth of
around 200m, where it is found in fossil, underground
tankstanks.
 In some areas in the extreme west boreholes go as deep
as 500mas 500m

9. Soil resource status cont.
 The soils of the okavango Delta and surrounding areas
are predominantly silty sands with some
organic/humic content As the rivers that flow out of organic/humic content. As the rivers that flow out of
the Okavango Delta disperse into the Makgadikgadi
Pans areas, the soils become fine sands with high , g
sodicity on the seasonally flooded flats and fine silt
sands on the dry ancient lacustrine shoreline areas

10. Soil resource status cont.
 Various types of vegetation cover much of the country.
These include grassland, natural woodland, forestland,
Savannal types bush land aquatic (wetlands) and Savannal types, bush land, aquatic (wetlands) and
man‐made plantations.
 Vegetation resources play an important role in Vegetation resources play an important role in
livestock farming and wildlife industries by their
contribution to the national economy and well being
of the citizens

11. Fig. 1. Soil map of Botswana

12. Soil health and land husbandry
 The ministry of Agriculture has a division of land
utilisation which is large and diverse comprising of five
sections responsible for land resources managementsections responsible for land resources management
 These are soil survey and mapping, land husbandry,
Agricultural Land use planning Cartography Agricultural Land use planning, Cartography,
Geographical Information systems(GIS) and Remote
Sensing sections

13. Contn.
 It employs a corresponding broad range of
professionals and specialists such as Agricultural
engineers soil suveyors Land use planners GIS and engineers, soil suveyors, Land use planners, GIS and
Remote Sensing specialists, cartographers and
conservation specialistsp
 The divisions core business is to promote sustainable
land productivity through promotion of good land
husbandy practices, generation of land resources
baseline data required for sustainable land resources
management development of surface and sub surface management, development of surface and sub surface

14. Cont.
 Water resources primarily for livestock watering and
irrigation.

15. Thank you