Botswana Seeks Brazil, Australia Grain as El Nino Withers Crops
- Country hasn’t bought corn from Brazil since at least 2003
- In 20 years it bought only 70 tons of corn from outside Africa
People walk through a dried channel near Nxaraga village in the Okavango Delta, in Botswana.
Photographer: Monirul Bhuiyan/AFP/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
Botswana is taking the unprecedented step of seeking grain imports from Australia and Brazil after the El Nino weather phenomenon caused the worst drought in 40 years.
With the drought having devastated the crop in Botswana and its southern African neighbors, the Botswana Agricultural Marketing Board said the state grain security agency, which is responsible for maintaining strategic reserves, was turning to seaborne trade for both corn and sorghum. Imports secured from neighboring Zimbabwe and South Africa was deemed insufficient.