Windhoek
Communal households lost 24 437 tonnes of mahangu during the 2013/14 harvest season.
This is revealed in the recently launched Communal Sector Report as part of the Namibia Statistics Agency’s Census of Agriculture for the above mentioned period.
The report found that 22 824 tonnes of mahangu from the total of 24 437 tonnes lost happened in the fields while 464 tonnes were lost during storage. A further 144 tones of mahangu were lost during the transportation process.
Households in the communal areas also reported a loss of 3 154 tonnes of wheat, with 3 143 tonnes lost in the fields followed by eight tonnes during storage. Sorghum was the third highest crop with losses of 2 019 tonnes of which 1 983 tonnes were lost in the fields, while maize recorded a total loss of 1 931 tonnes, of which 1 864 tonnes were lost in the fields.
Losses of 271 tonnes of pumpkin also occurred while total losses of beans reached 442 tonnes.
According to the report, maize recorded the highest number of production sold (1 520 tonnes). The majority thereof was sold to private traders in local markets, 404 tonnes was sold to private traders in constituencies and 316 tonnes were sold to consumer markets and only 137 tonnes was sold to government.
The total value of maize sold to various recipients was estimated at N$ 3.39 million.
Mahangu was recorded as the second highest crop sold at 1 342 tonnes of which the highest quantity of 744 tonnes was to neighbours/relatives, followed by 189 tonnes to consumer markets, 125 tonnes to private traders and 110 tonnes to government. The total value of mahangu sold to all the various recipients amounted to N$3.537 million.