Gendered Livelihoods, Informal Business Sector and Food Security: The Role of Indigenous Knowledge in Food Production in Botswana

Abstract

This paper examines gendered livelihoods and women’s contribution to food security at a household level
in Botswana. It focuses on the planting, harvesting, processing, and marketing of the morogo (vegetable/
leaves) and dinawa (beans) which come from the cowpeas plant –a member of the legume family. This
kind of vegetable leaves are also called morogo-wa-dinawa. The current work also assesses the utility of
traditional practices and knowledge systems in the attainment of food security for improved livelihoods
among rural and urban households in Botswana. It focuses on female-led households, utilizing cases from
both urban and rural areas to also explore mobility and transformation of society. The paper also analyses
how women access markets in urban informal economy to address livelihoods. In line with similar studies,
it is revealed here that food production at the rural household level is highly gendered as most of the work
is carried out by women who employ indigenous knowledge systems and practices associated with food
production, processing, storage, and marketing. The paper has adopted the case study approach and through
in-depth interviews profiled the agricultural practices of households. The interviews were conducted over a
long period of time between 2008 and 2021 at different sites in the country, capturing activities of gendered
livelihoods and food security. This is even more imperative with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic
which has impacted all the sectors of the economy.