The Agricultural Bank of Namibia (Agribank) has warned that food availability and accessibility continues to deteriorate as a result of high food prices and long-term drought effects.
According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a globalised set of tools providing for classifying the severity and magnitude of food insecurity, nearly a million people across Namibia experienced food insecurity in December 2021.
This dire food insecurity is being aggravated by high unemployment and high poverty levels.
With drought and external factors worsening local food insecurity, the Agribank suggests an urgent need to embark on climate resilient farming practices and increase local production of food to substitute high imports.
In its Market Watch for May 2022, the bank noted the outlook for global acute food insecurity in 2022 is expected to deteriorate further, relative to 2021.
“In particular, the unfolding war in Ukraine is likely to exacerbate the already severe 2022 acute food insecurity forecasts, given that the repercussions of the war on global food, energy and fertiliser prices and supplies have not yet been factored into most country-level projections,” reads the report.
It adds that the prevailing drought, high energy prices and the Covid-19 pandemic worsened the availability and accessibility of food in Namibia.
Meanwhile, global soft commodity prices have been the highest since 2008, which is a situation worsened by the Russian-Ukrainian dispute.
As a result, Namibian annual inflation spiked in April 2022 to 5.6% from 3.9% recorded in the prior year.
Agribank notes that food prices have averaged at 5.5% inflation for the first four months of 2022, pushing up the prices in the consumer basket.
“This price increment is triggered by shortages of oil supply from Ukraine and the rise in other food sub-categories, thus reducing people’s purchasing power and access to food,” the report reads.
Also, the inflation spike continues to be driven by high prices of oils and fats that increased to 23.4% in April 2022 from 15.6%, recorded in the prior month.
Sugar inflation significantly jumped to 6.9% in April 2022, from 0.5% in the prior year, while prices for bread and cereals have doubled since 2021, recording an inflation of 5.9% in April 2022 from 2.8% in the same period last year.
Hot beverage inflation grew to 6.7% in April 2022 from -0.5% in 2021.
Moreover, Namibian crop producers and livestock farmers succumbed to long-term effects of the 2019 drought, and the agricultural sector experienced significant contractions, since then emanating from high levels of livestock losses due to drought and low stock herd levels.
“The sector is slowly recovering as a result of normal to average rainfall received in 2021 and 2022 rain seasons, which has relatively improved rangeland condition and food production in the country. Although the improvement is not broad-based, it provides farmers an opportunity to reset their farming practices and redirect investments towards climate smart production practices,” the report reads.
A silver lining to the current predicament is that the Namibian beef market is set to benefit from increased European demand and high global beef prices.
However, Agribank cautions that farmer profit margins erode as high input costs persist.
Meanwhile, the World Food Programme (WFP) in Namibia, the food assistance branch of the United Nations, recently stated that many smallholder farmers in the country suffer a considerable amount of crop waste due to varying factors, including the lack of adequate storage facilities, inaccessibility to the market and other external factors brought about by extreme weather conditions.
This inevitably hinders progress on ensuring the country attains food security.
WFP country director George Fedha stated that: “In an effort to accelerate the journey towards zero-hunger, food and nutrition security and capacity building, partnerships with the private sector are crucial for skills strengthening through access to expertise and innovation that facilitate an end-to-end productive benefit for small-scale farmers,” said Fedha. - ebrandt@nepc.com.na