In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, rural communities in NG32, Botswana, are enjoying the first harvest from their fields, which they are cultivating with support and training from SAVE Botswana.

With a drastic impact on the health system and other sectors such as the tourism industry, the pandemic has limited Botswana’s rural areas, with their high poverty and unemployment rates, are also suffering from the effects of the pandemic and advancing climate change.

With the Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) project, we support locally developed initiatives. We enable help for self-help, provide training on climate-friendly agricultural practices and help to improve the supply situation of the population with fresh products.

On 29 June 2022, the time had come: the communities were able to harvest 50 bundles of chomolia from their fields and, together with the village development committees, distribute them to the population of the Quqao and Morutsha settlements. Ten particularly needy groups under the care of Social and Community Development (S&CD) each received three bundles of the green vegetable, which is eaten as an everyday side dish in Botswana.

This is a success not only for the village communities but also for SAVE Botswana’s Climate Smart Agriculture project. It encourages us in our commitment to support the village communities in improving the food situation in the rural areas of Botswana in the long term and in an environmentally friendly way, despite Corona and the difficult economic and climatic challenges.