Project Detail

Enhancing Sustainable Cattle Ranching at Pilikwe Community Farm in Radisele/Thebane through reduced Land Degrdation

The Pilikwe community has over the last 5 years been working on a number of concepts whose focus has been to create a multi-year development plan for sustainable use of natural and other resources in its environs. Part of this desire has led to the revival of village committees and community organisations, such as Pilikwe Development Association (PDA) to spearhead the effort for developing this 60 year old village. It will do so by prioritising adding value to community owned enterprises attached to agricultural lands (ranches and farms for both pastoral (cattle) and arable (crops). The proposal being submitted to the GEF /SGP relates exclusively to the ranch currently being used for beef cattle production. The 2940ha is to be secured (perimeter fence fixed) and portioned into to two paddocks to allow for sustainable ranching.

The key determinants being a secure fence (fix broken fence and strengthen it), determination of the range carrying capacity and matching the livestock numbers to this capacity. These would allow for reduced land degradation and combined with better farming management ? rotational gazing with periods through which each farm portion is rested ? will result in increased carrying capacity and income from operations. Added to this will be construction of a second watering point, further reducing pressure on the vegetation around the single point. And to distribute water to this new point, a water distribution system powered by solar energy will be commissioned. Additional activities that will add to value is instituting a robust monitoring and evaluation system that generates monthly, quarterly, biannual and final reports prepared by the Pilikwe Development Association, the proposer, to all stakeholders such as SGP and the community.
But topping all these, is the fact that there is visible land degradation in the farm area due to this uncontrolled entry on one hand, but even within the farm itself (were the external factor excluded) the land around the sole watering point is marked by thinning vegetation and pronounced gulleys due to the daily movement of cattle to the sole watering point on the other.

The Pilikwe Development Association (PDA) will be working with the farm executive committee (who manage four current farm employees), the village development committee and community of Pilikwe to co-fund, provide labour and give feedback to refine implementation. The ultimate aim of all these activities should result in sustainability of farming operations in the whole 2940ha farm, with demonstrative value of the use of renewal energy (solar) in water distribution. By monitoring clear indicators of improvement in the range condition will be recorded and used to make the community aware of global environment issues and the need to farm sustainably.

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Project Snapshot

Grantee:

Pilikwe Development Association

Country:

Botswana

Area Of Work:

Land Degradation

Operational Phase:

OP5-Y3 (Jul 13 - Jun 14)

Grant Amount:

US$ 46,588.00

Co-Financing Cash:

Co-Financing in-Kind:

US$ 62,977.00

Project Number:

BOT/SGP/OP5/STAR/LD/13/07

Start Date:

9/2013

End Date:

8/2015

Status:

Satisfactorily Completed

Project Characteristics and Results

Inovative Financial Mechanisms

The emphasis on record keeping by farm management makes it easy to compile accounts and the use of the bank for all transactions makes traceability of transactions easy. The demand for monthly reporting will allow for regular accounts and accountability. Combining these and the seed funding from SGP will allow the association to bid for further funding, in the medium term to continue developing other aspects of the sustainable farm development. While traditionally this funding has look outwards and internationally, by 9 providing their labour the community is able to double the funding for own projects as exemplified by this very project, even if they are themselves illiquid.

Promoting Public Awareness of Global Environment

The key agenda for the community workshops will be on how, farming negatively affects the environment, and how a degraded range cannot sustain farming. Thus the project team will share with the community on how sustainable farming practices, as exemplified the project, work to preserve the global environment. Additionally, they will be made aware of the broader coverage of the Global Environment Facility ? this should be an easy process since the community is already sensitised of environmental issues having resisted for years, the decision to site a radiation waste facility in their environs.

Emphasis on Sustainable Livelihoods

The project?s approach to this is if at the macro level, the community benefits by owning an enterprise that is sustainable, then it is a start. Through its good example and the engagement with the community other family owned ventures can benchmark. The financial means from this project will be put to future community projects that will offer both employment and demonstrative value to communities.

Gender Focus

This is a project that targets as beneficiaries all community members across the gender divide. In recognition of the status of women in farming projects ? they toil for little outputs ? they will be specifically targeted and workshopped on how farming interacts with the environment. They will be shown 8 labour saving options in terms of power generation with the use of solar power, which they can adopt for their own projects. Their involvement will empower and capacitate them to apply the same concepts in their own farms and avoid total reliance on family members? assistance who in some cases end up robbing them of their inheritance

Notable Community Participation

This project is a community project, and benefits from it will accrue to the community directly in terms of creating a sustainable source of funding for the farm enterprise itself, but equally for other community development initiatives beyond farming. The development of this proposal and the desire to securely fence off the farm to reduce overgrazing has been muted by the community over 5 years ago. As a prelude to the development of the proposal several Kgotla (community) meetings have been held to reaffirm the desire to move ahead and carry out this development. Four specific meetings since the first one in September 2012, followed by the annual AGM of the Association in December 2012 and lastly, two meetings in May and June 2013 endorsed the need to move ahead with the project. In fact, at the latter meeting a new management executive for the development of the ranch was elected for a period of 6 months to plan for such an eventuality and these were given specific instructions to work with the PDA executive to move the project to fruition. The community is a key stakeholder and owner of the project and its assets. The farmers amongst them will lean best practices to trial at their own farms. There is a standing practice to report to the community every December which will continue and be increased with a mid-term project progress report as well.

Policy Impact

Three specific policy areas with be impacted by the project: sustainable ranching through fencing (national policy on agricultural development); climate change and its mitigation (energy policy, climate change policy in the making) and the use of renewable energy, solar in particular (energy policy).

Capacity - Building Component

Volunteers in this project get exposure to current farming and conservation methods and get to apply them in their own farms. In addition to this the community will be work shopped on sustainable conservation and record keeping methods throughout the project. Those with interest to start similar projects can be attached to the farm for a period of time.

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