Editing Economy of Botswana (section)

==Agriculture==
More than half of Botswana's population lives in rural areas and depends on subsistence crops and livestock farming.<ref name="Background 2002" /> Agriculture meets only a small portion of food needs and contributes just 1.8% of Botswana's GDP as of 2017, according to the CIA World Factbook.<ref name="cia.gov" /> 2024 estimates stated that it was still less than 2% of Botswana's GDP.<ref>{{Cite web |last= |date=2024-02-28 |title=Botswana - Agricultural Sectors |url=https://www.trade.gov/country-commercial-guides/botswana-agricultural-sectors |access-date=2024-05-05 |website=www.trade.gov |language=en}}</ref> Cattle raising dominated Botswana's social and economic life before independence.<ref name="Background 2002" /> The [[Botswana Meat Commission]] (BMC) has a monopoly on beef production, however in late 2023, it ended.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Mguni |first=Mbongeni |title=BMC monopoly nears end as Cabinet approves meat regulator |url=https://www.mmegi.bw/business/bmc-monopoly-nears-end-as-cabinet-approves-meat-regulator/news}}</ref> The national herd was about 2.5 million in the mid-1990s, though the 1995 government-ordered slaughter of the entire herd in Botswana's north-west [[Ngamiland]] District, to prevent the spread of "cattle lung disease" to other parts of the country, reduced the number by at least 200,000.<ref name=":0" />

Botswana produced, in 2018:

* 102 thousand tons of [[root]] and [[tubers]];
* 46 thousand tons of [[vegetables]];
* 17 thousand tons of [[sorghum]];
* 13 thousand tons of [[maize]];
* 8 thousand tons of [[cabbage]];
* 6 thousand tons of [[onion]];
* 5 thousand tons of [[tomato]];

In addition to smaller productions of other agricultural products.<ref name=":0">{{cite web| url = http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/QC/| title = Botswana production in 2018, by FAO}}</ref>