By Chrispin Inambao KATIMA MULILO Erratic rainfall and floods that have swamped crop fields in the Caprivi Region would culminate in a poor maize harvest of 2ÃÆ’Æ‘ÀÃ…ÃÆ”šÃ‚ 000 tonnes or merely a third of the marketable grain from the current season compared to the norm of 6ÃÆ’Æ‘ÀÃ…ÃÆ”šÃ‚ 000 tonnes. This year’s harvest could be as little as a mere one thousand tonnes when during good rainfall the grain yield could even be as much as 7ÃÆ’Æ‘ÀÃ…ÃÆ”šÃ‚ 000 tonnes usually sold to millers. The head of Likwama Farmers’ Union, Mathias Semi, who represents most communal farmers in Caprivi Region, painted the picture of a massive crop failure as a direct consequence of flooding and erratic rainfall that started pouring late in December. Because there has been no proper quantification the actual amount of maize planted in Caprivi is not known, says Semi, given the fact that these figures only indicate the maize sold to milling companies and not the grain retained for the farmers’ own domestic usage. Most of the subsistence farmers only started ploughing and planting during the last week of December and in January when the ground was wet due to rain, but they stopped ploughing in February when rains abruptly stopped falling. Semi says if no rain is received in the “critical period” covering the first week of March, the region faces a potential food crisis – a “disaster” could be looming due to crop failure. “We are expecting a calamity,” said Semi, adding that flooding at several villages in Kabbe and in Linyanti constituencies is compounding the situation in the region. “If it doesn’t rain in the first week of March it will be a big problem,” he stated. Subsistence farmers will be devastated by the anticipated crop failure because in areas such as Kasheshe, Masokotwani and Kwena they tilled large fields using tractors while in Kabbe and Lusese the method was a combination of ox-pulled ploughs and tractors. Maize and other crops planted in Kabbe, Katima Rural, Linyanti, Sibbinda and Kongola constituencies are already wilting due to insufficient ground moisture and from the heat. The three main millers in Caprivi are Kamunu, Namib Mills and Rings, with Kamunu ranked as the biggest grain buyer and “it has the interests of the people at heart”. Maize farmers in Caprivi expect to fetch N$2ÃÆ’Æ‘ÀÃ…ÃÆ”šÃ‚ 000 per tonne this season though last year the price per tonne was fixed at N$1ÃÆ’Æ‘ÀÃ…ÃÆ”šÃ‚ 600 after the initial price of N$1ÃÆ’Æ‘ÀÃ…ÃÆ”šÃ‚ 800/tonne had to be reduced. Those in the Windhoek and Otavi areas would receive N$1ÃÆ’Æ‘ÀÃ…ÃÆ”šÃ‚ 800/tonne, while the base price for South African farmers stands at N$1ÃÆ’Æ‘ÀÃ…ÃÆ”šÃ‚ 300 plus the N$400 offered to cover other costs. Likwama Farmers Union serving the interests of 600 communal farmers in Caprivi is an acronym derived from Linyanti, Kwando and Mashi rivers. Hundreds of farmers in Kongola, Linyanti and Kabbe constituencies have incurred huge crop losses after floods swamped their crop fields. – In a development related to the floods, two boys were yesterday presumed dead when the dugout canoe transporting them with six others sank along the Zambezi River, bringing the flood death toll to five after three other people drowned separately over the weekend. The victims were reportedly being transported from Katima Mulilo to Schuckmannsburg where floods have completely cut off whole settlements, isolating villagers and cattle.