As Namibia’s annual rainy season continues, it presents major opportunities for the nation’s agricultural sector to utilise the much-needed moisture to increase agricultural productivity and enhance its annual contribution to the GDP. 

If farmers use the rain appropriately, it can directly influence the outputs from many farming ventures. Rainfall plays a vital role in replenishing the valuable underground water channels and aquifers, which in turn improves the water table and ensures that moisture availability is favourable. 

Consequently, this offers the soil’s seed bank of valuable annual and perennial grasses an ideal environment that encourages seed germination and regrowth of valuable forage material on the country’s rangelands. 

However, in areas where grasses have been affected by the recurring droughts, farmers are advised to introduce rangeland re-seeding by introducing seeds of perennial grasses such as wool grass (Anthephora pubescens) and Blue Buffalo (Cenchrus ciliaris). 

This simple exercise is a crucial method for improving grazing quality, ensuring that a farmer’s livestock has access to high-quality grazing. This ideally promotes the rapid growth of lambs, kids, and calves. 

It also maintains the productive condition of livestock and enable them to survive the driest months of the year (September – November), thereby reducing mortality rates. 

Innovation 

Harvesting rainwater is another effective way of utilising rain to enhance agricultural productivity. Rainwater can be harvested using earth dams, roof gutters and redirecting such water to natural catchment areas such as oshanas, streams and rivers. 

This collected water can then be used to irrigate cultivated crop fields and pastures to ensure that the daily water requirements of crops are met with ease. 

This practice ensures that crops such as maize, pearl millet (mahangu), sorghum, beans and groundnuts are grown with minimal rates of crop failure due to prolonged dry spells during the rainy season. 

This ensures that crop productivity in communal areas is improved and consequently improves food security at household levels. Improved harvests for many farmers will lead to excess grains sold to millers, helping maintain full national grain reserves for better disaster response, such as during droughts. For farmers who intend to venture into orchard production, the rainy season offers an ideal planting time for most fruit tree seedlings, as the soil gets rehydrated regularly. The moisture levels in the soil present seedling root systems with sufficient moisture, nutrients and carbon dioxide, which is ideal for development and growth. 

In areas with sandy-loam soils, regular rainfall allows fruit trees to grow at a faster rate when the right amounts of Nitrogen and Phosphorus are provided. Root and vegetative growth are accelerated so that grafted fruit tree seedlings can reach flowering and fruiting stages in just 2 to 3 years. 

This will encourage the growth of local fruit production and consequently improve employment opportunities for rural communities and generate the much-needed income for small-scale farmers. 

The rainy season is a blessing that many Namibian farmers should take advantage of to enhance farming conditions, thereby increasing productivity of their enterprises, and ultimately improving household food security and income. 

Valuing the limited moisture from rain and using it effectively can be the difference between a productive and a struggling farmer.  

*Hanks Saisai is Agribank’s technical advisor for crops and poultry.