Analysis of entrepreneurship development at Botswana University of Agriculture and Natural Resources: A case study of the Agripreneur Program

Entrepreneurship development (ED) is a common phrase in the current business world, and similarly so in Botswana. The goal of the Botswana University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (BUAN) incubation agripreneur programme in collaboration with the Local Enterprise Authority (LEA) is to equip beneficiaries with the much-needed entrepreneurial and technical skills in agribusiness. This paper reports on the Agripreneur beneficiaries views on the program and propose suggestions on programme improvement. The results indicated that about 44% of the respondents are currently operating their own agribusinesses, with most of them being male. A third of the respondents’ businesses are located in the Southern part of Botswana, where there is a good market potential and access to most of the key inputs. Furthermore, majority of the sampled beneficiaries indicated that the agripreneur programme moderately equipped them with financial management skills. The beneficiaries also reported that they had been equipped in husbandry aspects to a large extent. However, beneficiaries decried a lack of networking skills and labor management issues. Overall, the sampled beneficiaries indicated that they benefited from the Agripreneur programme. As a way to continually improve the programme, it is vital to carry-out ongoing monitoring and evaluation of the programme to ensure that skill gaps are regularly identified among the beneficiaries and remedial action is taken.