Botswana’s agriculture value added rose to 1.8% of GDP in 2025.

Neither way is good in itself. A higher share can mean farming is growing or that other sectors are shrinking, and a lower share can mean the economy has broadened or that farm output has weakened. The direction therefore depends on what is driving it. The latest figure, for 2025, is 1.8% of GDP, the same as the 1.8% of GDP a year earlier, with a change of 0.02 percentage points. Since 2016 the share has ranged from a low of 1.6% of GDP in 2022 to a high of 2.2% of GDP in 2020. The 2025 reading sits closer to the bottom of that range than the top.

Why it matters. At 1.8% of GDP, farming makes up a small part of Botswana's national output, so growth and government revenue depend mainly on other sectors. The share can look steady while individual farming households face very different seasons, because drought or livestock disease affects those households far more than it affects the national total. Whether the share returns towards the 2020 level of 2.2% of GDP or stays near its current level will show whether farming is keeping pace with the wider economy.