WINDHOEK – It might be all over for crop producers in the Maize Triangle, the bread basket of Namibia, but some livestock producers have started celebrating the late rains of the past three weeks in various parts of the country.
This has brought promise of slightly improved grazing conditions for the winter as the rainy season draws to a close. The Agronomic Producers Association (APA) started with its preliminary estimate of expected dry and wet land total harvest for this season when all role players and stakeholders gathered in Rundu last Thursday to assess the situation on the ground with feedback from producers on expected yields. Both APA.s Chairperson, Gernot Eggert, and Coordinator, Antoinette Venter, told Farmers Forum it’s a foregone conclusion that the total harvest in the Maize Triangle will be a dismal flop with just some 2 000 tonnes of white maize (staple food of Namibians) expected. It will be up to the wet land production areas like Kavango and Hardap to supply the bulk of the expected 33 000 tonnes of total harvest with the Summerdown area the only rain-fed area that will possible contribute significant yields, they conclude.
Last year, Namibia produced almost 73 000 tonnes of white maize but all hope for such yields were lost when predictions of an El Niño hitting the Southern Hemisphere summer that would last into the first months of 2015 became true. Livestock producers are now pinning their hopes on even more rains this month as downpours in March and the first week of Aril have made a significant change to their rangeland conditions.
The Chairperson of the Livestock Producers Organisation (LPO), Mecki Schneider, has confirmed this saying the late rains will have a quite dramatic impact on the grazing situation. “But we need more of these life-giving rains in the rest of April,” he warns, adding that the effect will now depend on how quickly winter sets in. “Temperatures are already dropping daily and this will stunt the growth of grass as the days get shorter and there is less sunshine available. But every drop counts,” he concludes.
While the north-central and far north-east parts of the country have recorded below average rainfall since December 2014, the north-central parts have hardly seen any rain until late March. According to the SADC Regional Climate Outlook, the picture looks bleaker for Namibia, which received an average rainfall of below 100 milimetres when rain started mid-October to November and December. Namibia’s rainfall levels were very low compared to the 400 milimetres in South Africa, and the above 600 milimetres recorded in Malawi, Zambia, Angola, southern half of DRC, central and northern Mozambique as well as Mauritius and Madagascar.
In interviews with New Era, crop and livestock farmers in the north-central regions expressed mixed feelings on the current rainy season. Some feel the late rains have benefitted them quite a lot, while others hardly feel the differences due to the sporadic down pours. While most parts of Namibia reported improved grazing conditions, except the north central and north western parts of Namibia after some rain earlier last year, a bleak picture has since unfolded in the absence of rain in the current season that started last October and has up to now showed very little to impress farmers. Strong winds have also shifted a lot of top soil in deforested areas where the land is bare and over-grazed, making it vulnerable to wind erosion.
Despite the late rains, the situation has deteriorate fast in Oshana, Oshikoto, Omusati and Ohangwena, regions where fair to poor grazing conditions were reported except in the cattle post areas where good to moderate grazing conditions were reported. Even in areas where good grazing conditions were reported that include Zambezi, Kavango East, Kavango West, Otjozondjupa, Khomas, Omaheke, Hardap, and Erongo regions, the situation is stirring up fears of very late rains too late in the current season.
The inadequate grazing conditions came as a result of generally poor rainfall, seen in the forms of erratic, sporadic and insufficient rainfall in the first half of the season, and a series of prolonged dry spell in January and the whole of February this year. Already poor grazing conditions in the !Karas region are also deteriorating fast in the absence of rain. Grazing conditions in the north and south of the Kunene region range from extremely poor to poor. In Kunene central, the annual grasses have grown somewhat but perennial grasses had not improved, leaving livestock producers in dire straits.
In the east of Kunene, the grazing conditions are reported to be between poor and fair, especially from Outjo up to Otjikondo area. In the Erongo region, grazing conditions are reported to be fair in Uis, Omatjette, Otjimbingwe, Omaruru and Karibib areas, while poor at Okombahe and Spitzkoppe areas because of low rainfall received.
Livestock conditions in most regions are said to have improved slightly after the drought of 2013, except in the Kunene region, and the north and extreme parts of the Omusati region where the situation is reported to range between poor and fair. But for crop farmers in dry land areas, the late rains came way too late.