Botswana’s Agricultural Game-Changer: Safflower Production Scales Up to Boost Food Security and Smallholder Farmers
By Nevison Mpofu
GABORONE, Botswana — Once overlooked by many farmers, safflower is emerging as a potentially transformative crop in Botswana, offering small-scale producers a climate-resilient pathway to improved food security, income generation and agro-industrial development.
In a country characterised by arid and semi-arid conditions, the oilseed crop is attracting growing interest because of its resilience to harsh weather, nutritional value and wide range of industrial applications. As climate change intensifies droughts and makes rainfall increasingly unpredictable across Southern Africa, safflower is being promoted as one of the crops that could help farmers adapt while strengthening local food production.
