Windhoek
Namibia’s rain-fed crop producers in the Maize Triangle and the Summerdown areas have reached their most critical stage of the current season.
Producers may well face a dismal harvest if it does not rain sufficiently over the next few days. Producers in the rain-fed crop areas have only planted some 5 000 hectares this season due to the late and erratic rains since November last year.
Chairperson of the Namibia Agronomic Producers Organisation Gernot Eggert is greatly concerned about the situation, saying the main rain-fed crop areas usually plant in excess of 10 000 hectares, and with just 5 000 ha now planted, a dismal harvest is again expected.
If it does not rain within the next few days, the situation will deteriorate even further and ruined crops would be the order of the day, he fears.
Namibia will most likely have to import more than 140 000 tonnes of maize to fill the gap in the market due to poor rainfall in the current planting season.
Coordinator and manager of maize and wheat at the Agronomic Board of Namibia (ABN) Antoinette Venter says all the warning signs are there that Namibia will have to import vast amounts of maize, although the production season is only starting now.
“Namibia has produced very, very little maize locally. It is still early stages and we will only be able to give the final estimation a bit later, but it looks like Namibian dry-land farmers will only produce about a maximum of 30 000 tonnes of irrigation maize. But these are only broad projections and things might change slightly for the better if it starts raining now between 20 and 40 mm in the next few days. February is the most critical month of the year for rain-fed maize producers,” she notes.
Namibia’s 2015 maize crop was 44% lower than the 2014 (above-average) output, according to figures released by the Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN). It notes that around half of all dry land commercial farmers experienced total crop losses as a result of the drought and high temperatures.
“An estimated 370 316 people are food insecure and the target of a government drought relief programme,” it warns.
South Africa is the biggest victim of the drought. It is the region’s main maize producer, but last year’s output fell 30% below the bumper 2014 season and it may have to import around six million tonnes of maize.
Planting of the 2016 cereal crop began later than normal due to delayed rains, according to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP).
South Africa has indicated that the El Niño-induced drought is the worst the country has suffered in more than half a century. The El Niño global weather event, which is leading to even worse drought across the region, is already affecting this year’s crop.
The WFP is warning that with little or no rain falling in many areas, and the window for the planting of cereals closing fast or already closed in some countries, the outlook is “alarming.”
“The region is ill-prepared for a shock of this magnitude, particularly since the last growing season was also affected by drought. This means depleted regional stocks, high food prices, and substantially increased numbers of food insecure people,” the UN agency adds.
In response, local miller Namib Mills, announced price increases on all its product categories on January 26 and again two weeks ago.