Rural & Urban Agriculture Innovative Production Program (RUAIPP).

  “This plant is already growing here — what industries could we build around it?” Across Africa, agriculture is still too often discussed in terms of hectares planted, tonnes harvested and bags sold. That approach is no longer enough. The future of competitive agriculture lies in asking a different question: What industries can we build from the crops we grow? One crop that deserves far more attention is Castor — Ricinus communis . At first glance, castor may appear to be just another hardy tropical plant. But behind its large leaves and distinctive seed capsules is a globally traded industrial oil and an extraordinary family of high-value chemical derivatives. The global castor oil market alone is valued in the billions of US dollars , supported by demand from cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, lubricants, specialty chemicals, coatings, polymers and other industrial sectors. For African economies looking for crops that can connect agriculture with manufacturing, castor deserves serious...

  DAILY AGRICULTURAL INTELLIGENCE — 2 SEPTEMBER 2026 Today’s focus returns to one of the most commercially interesting high-value spice crops: Turmeric ( Curcuma longa L. ). The key lesson is not simply that turmeric can be grown and dried. The larger opportunity lies in designing an integrated system around: planting material → farm production → harvest → curing → drying → polishing → grading → milling → extraction → laboratory testing → traceability → buyer specification → export India provides the clearest global benchmark. According to India’s Spices Board, the country exported 175,896 tonnes of turmeric during 2025–26, worth approximately US$327.2 million . Turmeric represented about 7% of India’s total spice-export earnings by value in that financial year. Indian Spices Evidence: Spices Board India — 2025–26 Item-Wise Spice Export Statistics The larger message for Botswana and Africa is therefore: Do not build a turmeric programme whose final product is merely a sack of drie...