The agriculture sector contributes over 8% to Namibia’s gross domestic product (GDP) and accounts for over a fifth of the local workforce, but the sector still remains largely unappreciated, as it received only 4% of total loans and advances from private banks in the last eight years.
Rice and poultry farming continue to gain popularity in northern Namibia, thanks to support from Unam’s Ogongo campus to students and local farmers.
The transition from the warm summer months to the cold winter months has posed challenges for many poultry farmers in Namibia.
The Namibian Police have raised concerns around alarming livestock theft cases in the Omaheke region, where both commercial and communal farmers have lost over 100 cattle to rustlers since the start of the year.
Although it comes across as a profitable and smooth-flowing choice of farming, pig farming is not for the faint-hearted as it comes with a lot of intricacies and high input costs, Epukiro’s renowned pig farmer Michael Aihuki has asserted.
Although the country’s beef sector has made tremendous inroads on the global stage, more work still needs to be done to further bolster local production and marketing value chains to ensure that Namibian beef remains in high demand worldwide.