WINDHOEK – In an attempt to combat desertification and land degradation, some communal farmers are of the opinion that reducing the number of livestock is the only way to restore degraded land.
Sem Shikongo the Director of Tourism in the Ministry of Environment and Tourism together with the farmers yesterday convened a consultative meeting on how to mitigate desertification and land degradation. Shikongo highlighted the importance of land saying: “The land will continue to be for you and your family’s livelihood. If you mess up the soil, then you are in trouble and this land can no longer take care of us and one day we will rely on soil that is so depleted because of [greed].” One of the farmers, Asser Tjitezeua, said they are “trying to find relevant indicators that tell us the condition of the land we are farming on. However, it has not been so easy because we mainly depend on livestock farming and not horticulture, because the elephants destroy crops. So, knowing that Namibia is a dry country, we check the livestock conditions and rainfall features. And we realised that keeping a lot of livestock will not help, because you will not sustain them. Reduction of livestock must take place.”
Tjitezeua, who is also the chairperson of the ≠Khoadi//Hoas conservancy in the western part of the Kunene Region, said they are involved in monitoring and tackling land degradation and desertification.
Another farmer Ottilie Amaambo is a subsistence farmer from the Onkani project in the Otamanzi constituency in the Omusati Region, where they are also involved in managing land in a sustainable way by planting trees and gardens. “We also harvest water from roofs, and we want to sell that water. We are knocking at the doors of donors to assist us so that we can venture into other projects to sustain our land,” Amaambo said.
A farmer from Gibeon, Sara Bock, said she is a Swakara karakul farmer, which type of farming she says is more sustainable. She farms on 2800 hectares of land which her forbears acquired under the Odendal Plan before independence.
She started farming in 1982 with seven goats and two donkeys and over the years she was also involved in land restoration projects with the help of donor funding. To date she owns 600 karakul and 250 persie sheep, 150 goats, 35 cattle, six donkeys and 12 horses.
Arnoldt Gaseb is a livestock mentor in the Kunene and Erongo regions who visits farms to teach farmers about land degradation. “The culture and status play an important role in many communities as they believe having a lot of livestock is wealth and one earns respect, so it is very difficult to convince people. As a mentor, I can’t tell farmers to sell their animals to restore the land, then it is a big fight. It remains a big challenge with land degradation in the northern cordon fence. The land has to support me and my children and each one of them wants to have their own animals.” He feels information sharing among farmers is crucial so that they can understand that relocating their animals from one place to another will help restore the land.
By Albertina Nakale