– Cabinet to Work on Contingency Plans By Petronella Sibeene WINDHOEK Depending on the magnitude of the widely anticipated massive crop failure due to erratic rainfall this year, the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry might request Cabinet to approve additional funds to be used for relief programmes. A report from last month’s visit to the five crop-producing regions says that drought is likely this year due to insufficient rain so far this rainy season. “The likelihood of drought cannot be ruled out. We will send a team again early April and if nothing positive comes out, we will alert Cabinet to see what additional financial resources they can provide,” said the Minister of Agriculture, Water and Forestry Dr Nickey Iyambo. Every year, government sets aside 50-100 million Namibian dollars for emergency purposes. He said hopefully by the time the team returns from the field, there would still be enough time to make the appropriate budget provisions. Should the report from the second visit to Caprivi, Omusati, Ohangwena, Oshana and Oshikoto confirm the drought situation in the country, like in the past, the ministry will have to advise cattle farmers to slaughter their animals via Meatco. “It will be better for them to keep the money or use that money during the drought period than to wait till the animals are lean or sometimes die,” said the minister. Iyambo said communal farmers always find it difficult to part with their animals but given the negative situation on the horizon, farmers are urged to take the advice. Vulnerable groups, mainly orphans, pregnant mothers and the elderly will be given preference as far as relief food is concerned given their fragility. Government would also have to look for alternative grazing land for farmers in the severely affected areas. While government discourages direct distribution of food due to past cases when the affected would sell their rations, the minister said it is likely that other methods will be devised. An economist in the ministry, Lesley Losper, recently said if rains do not improve by the end of April 2007, severe drought can be expected. He added that it all depends on the rain patterns in the coming months. If it rains in March, millet would survive especially for farmers that are using early maturing seeds. If it does not rain, severe drought should be expected, he reiterated. Control Meteorological Technician Jennifer Moeti yesterday revealed that the country has for the past months received below normal rainfall due to El Nino, which has affected the rain patterns. This trend should be expected up to the end of March. Unfortunately, this rainy season ends towards the end of April. Current rain patterns might prevail through to next month except for the northeast and northwestern parts of the country that might receive normal rain. Based on the crop assessments done last month, the outlook in the fields reveals that the rainfall in the past few months was not enough. Some shrubs have dried up while good grass is sparse. The animals on most farms are similarly affected especially that grass for grazing has not yet picked up due to a lack of sufficient rain. Most areas late last year experienced veld fires and grass for grazing is just not there. The major concern with regard to this agricultural season is the prevailing dry conditions in especially the northern parts of the country. From mid-December to February, there was not enough rainfall. As a result most people planted late and crops might not reach maturity. Most crops in the visited regions are in their infancy stages. Statistics show that about 60 percent of the crops are only emerging now and the remaining 40 percent are still being planted or still have to emerge. Traditionally, crop planting starts as early as 15 November, which was not the case this season. Annual visits conducted every early February by a team comprising of personnel from the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry as well as officials from the emergency unit in the Office of the Prime Minister usually report that by now crops are expected to have reached a vegetative stage, Losper said. Most of the farmers in these areas are traditional and thus could not start ploughing in November as the first rains only came in December last year. With the dry spell that has badly hit most parts of the country starting from November, all the way to the end of December, planting of seeds was delayed. Farmers who planted in December unfortunately saw all their crops wilting, a situation that was caused by a dry spell that hit early January this year, he said. In the Caprivi where farmers received fairly good rains, there is the likelihood of good harvests. However, the current floods are reported to have swamped crop fields and poor harvests could be inevitable.