by Deon Schlechter
Windhoek
The Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry (MAWF) is in the process of reviewing the national drought policy and strategy and the process is expected to be finalised by the end of the next financial year.
Furthermore, the MAWF will approach Cabinet to establish a fund for drought, because it was found during previous droughts that it takes valuable time for the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) to process payments related to drought and other disasters.
According to Deputy Director of the Directorate of Agricultural Production, Extension and Engineering Service in the Department of Agriculture, Ben Haraseb, the MAWF is aware of several shortcomings regarding the national drought policy and strategy of 1997.
“One of the shortcomings is the [need for the] establishment of the Drought Fund, which never happened as stipulated in the national drought policy and strategy due to the fact that the Office of the Prime Minister has established a National Disaster Fund that is responsible for all disasters in the country,” he notes.
He stressed that Namibia’s drought policy is concerned with developing an efficient, equitable and sustainable approach to drought management.
In line with the national agricultural policy, it is recognised that aridity and highly variable rainfall are normal phenomena. As such, all farmers must take into account the risks associated with variable input and output prices, exchange rates and weather conditions.
Haraseb advises that the first thing a drought-stricken farmer should do is to destock, but the extend depends on the intensity and duration of the drought.
Haraseb commented on the importance of the national drought policy and strategy on the eve of winter and after yet another drought, which has affected virtually all livestock producers negatively.
He says farmers must progressively reduce their livestock numbers, even before the full effect of the drought causes deteriorated grazing conditions.
“Farmers should start the reduction process with easy-to-dispense filler animals and getting rid of filler animals should reduce the farm’s stocking rate from 90 percent utilisation to about 65 percent.
“Farmers will most likely obtain reasonable prices for filler animals, but he must sell at an early stage when the majority of farmers still cling to their livestock in the hope of better climatic conditions,” he observed.
He advises farmers to restrict supplementary feeding this winter to the core or nucleus herd, as it is extremely expensive and unprofitable. “No sick, old or unworthy animal should be fed,” he notes.
Haraseb says what is urgently needed in Namibia after so many dry spells is for all stakeholders to work closely together as a team in order to come up with better drought mitigation strategies and make agriculture a leading sector of the economy in terms of job creation and poverty alleviation.
In conclusion, he says the policy aim is to shift responsibility for managing drought risk from government to the farmer, with financial assistance and food security interventions only to be considered in the event of an extreme or disaster drought being declared.
“The thrust of the policy is a move away from regular financial assistance to large numbers of private-tenure and communal-tenure farmers to measures that support the on-farm management of risk. Government’s involvement with drought will move beyond this and exclusive focus on emergency drought programmes to a broader, longer-term perspective,” he states.