The problem of food shortage in Botswana has so far been analysed mainly in technological terms. However, case studies of the social organization of domestic productive labour in three households in Letlhakeng disclose an underlying social problem and suggest that food security depends on the way people react to the implementation of contradictory government policies and strategies. The government’s priority to develop the urban areas has resulted in a strong tide of rural-urban migration. While this may bring direct benefits in the form of remittances to those households whose members migrate, the net effect on the development of the rural areas is negative. At the same time, some of the government’s development programmes, by offering easy jobs, such as the Drought Relief Programme, or by making food readily available within the household, also tend to discourage rural households from participating in agricultural production. Finally, under conditions of social and economic change, the clash between the communal principles embodied in the traditional kinship organization and modern, individualistic tendencies may lead younger members of the extended family to withdraw from agriculture. Bibliogr.
