The Youth Are the Future!

The youth are the future! Today’s meetings were inspiring to see youth taking charge as designers of their own future and carving a path forward for the agricultural industry and nation. 

We’ve been very lucky to have some great meetings and meet some pretty interesting people. The highlight of some of these meetings is not only learning from the officials that we meet, but also watching young people advocate for themselves. During our time in Botswana, the team has grown in our knowledge of dairy and how we can best strategically support Nonny. We’ve also begun to learn how Nonny advocates for herself and other youth in these spaces.

In our meeting with Dr. Benjamin Ditsele, the head vet at the Botswana Agricultural Marketing Board, Nonny was able to advocate for the inclusion of a consultative board and engage the head vet in opportunities to better support the dairy sector. He was very receptive to the idea, and even pitched an idea of artificial insemination training opportunities that Nonny could lead.

Dr. Ditsele was very excited to share with us a new program he was piloting called BushVets. The current veterinarians, all government run, are so focused on foot and mouth disease (FMD) that farmers like Nonny experience difficulties getting preventive and prophylactic care for their livestock for illnesses beyond FMD. BushVets is a program that would create vehicles of veterinary technicians that travel to farms and assist farmers with administering the appropriate care for their animals. The program is in their first six months of a trial period, so the service is only offered around Gaborone, with an operating radius of 200km.  Dr. Ditsele hopes to eventually have a truck of BushVets in all regions of Botswana. The government will need to focus on improving training for veterinary technicians and supporting education for more vets in the industry to accommodate this need. The BushVet program is already attracting attention from international organizations who may be able to help mitigate this bottleneck. 

One of our team members, Clairion, realized that she and the head vet had both attended programs through Tuskegee University where Dr. Ditsele completed his DVM. She might even be headed back to Botswana for the summer with this important connection! Most importantly, she’s (pretty much) decided on being pre-vet and eventually attending veterinary school to help communities adapt livestock needs to climate change and drought resilience. Our discussion with the head vet today as well as many in-car and late night discussions have led to this super exciting decision. 

Perhaps most excitingly, we also met with the Minister of Agriculture. Dr. Edwin Dikoloti, a young former veterinarian, who is new to this office. The new president, Mokgweetsi Masisi, elected in 2019 brought in a new youthful cadre of ministers, and general elections elected out all but five of the existing MPs, leaving room for an exciting new class. A large number of these new MPs are young which could mean great opportunity for change for Botswana’s future. In the span of ten years, Dr. Dikoloti went from a veterinary graduate to minister while traversing a number of different career paths: government employee (the standard path for most veterinarians in Botswana), the private sector, consulting, and now politician. What’s also exciting is the assistant minister of agriculture, Beauty Manake, (who was traveling this week) is also a youth that has been advocating for more young leaders and advancement of the agricultural industry. Dr. Dikoloti also provided insight into the possibility of future restructuring of some governmental ministries which could allow for better communication and efficiency of certain functional roles.

Our host Nonny described the sentiment she and other youth felt as they watched his trajectory and rise, “He gave the youth the hope that we can do anything.” Given that the African continent is home to some of the world’s youngest populations, it is incredibly exciting to witness youth on the forefront of development and leadership within these countries. The Minister also seemed incredibly supportive of Nonny’s project and building a deeper relationship with Cornell! Who knows, maybe we’ll have more Botswana teams here in the future.