KEETMANSHOOP – //Karas regional governor Bernadus Swartbooi has called on government to speed up policy implementation in all regions in order to speed up development and to alleviate drought related poverty.
This comes in the wake of the ravaging drought that has affected, especially the northern parts of the country, while a good number of people in the south can barely afford fodder for their livestock. The governor expressed concern over the rate at which small stock is dying in the southern parts of the country, because of government’s refusal to distribute fodder as part of its drought relief programme. “People’s livestock are dying. Who said people in the south want food? They want fodder most of them can buy food for themselves, but they cannot afford to buy feed for their animals,” he said. He also took issue with the time it takes to process applications for subsidies, saying the process is extremely tiring and time consuming. Swartbooi is also not happy with the current patterns of local ownership of land and affirmative action in respect of land ownership saying he anticipates an end to land acquisition by black farmers, making referrence to a farm that was sold for N$11 million dollars in the south earlier this year. “These excessive prices are prohibiting black prospective farmers from acquiring land, because they cannot afford it,” he argued. He said resettled farmers are not allowed to fence off their land and that it demotivates them, adding that there is a need for incentivising resettlement farmers to ensure positive growth on their farms.
He said the //Karas Region has lost an estimated N$170 million, because farmers were forced to accept low prices for their livestock which they cannot export. Another phenomenon adding to the sad situation is that South African small livestock buyers stopped buying in Namibia following the ban on the export of live animals. This has left only three farmers bidding at livestock auctions in the region, a situation that has completely weakened competition during livestock sales and affected most farmers in the south adversely, according to the governor. “These farmers had to retrench people, some people gave back their farms, black farmers… but farmers keep quiet about this because if they complain then it will be said, ‘ah it is only the whites’, but the people are suffering,” Swartbooi said. Drought Relief Coordinator in the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry, Absalom Naseb, confirmed the situation noting that the areas most severely affected include Bethanie, Berseba, Warmbad and Gai-ganagas outside Mariental.
According to him he cannot understand how people in the region still manage to continue farming since most of them barely manage to survive since the onset of the drought, said to be the worst in 30 years.
However, he said the greatest challenge farmers in the region are facing is that their ewes collapse and die just minutes after having given birth. “I am a farmer myself and I can tell you we are sustaining great losses because of this, we are still waiting for the veterinarian to explain to us why these ewes just died and it was the first time we witnessed something like that. It is normal for the lamb to die after birth, but not the mother (sic),” he said, adding that the distribution of fodder in the region will be a great help to farmers, especially now that suppliers pushed up their prices making it practically unaffordable for the majority of small farmers. He also said farmers have no choice but to sell their animals at extremely low prices because they do not have any fodder for them.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry’s //Karas regional head for Rural Water Supply, Frans Ndjarakana, 28 boreholes are currently being drilled in the region under the government’s drought relief programme, while 12 boreholes funded by the Chinese government are still to be drilled. He highlighted that drilling operations are outsourced to different Namibian companies and one borehole costs N$250 000 to drill. Namibia is experiencing its worst drought and household food crisis in 30 years with one million people reportedly affected out of a population of 2.3 million. According to Relief Web International it is expected that this year’s harvest will be 40 percent less than last year and the deterioration of livestock conditions is expected to worsen, while water tables are expected to run low. Media reports over the last months indicated that the Kunene Region has been the hardest hit in the country, where two years of failed rains have devastated millet and maize plantations, dried up water sources for cattle and forced people to go in search of water over long distances.
By Jemima Beukes