INTENSIFYING pressures on natural resources, mounting inequality and climate change has put mankind’s ability to feed itself in jeopardy and Namibia is no exception.
Although real and significant progress has been made in reducing global hunger over the past three decades, The Future of Food and Agriculture: Trends and Challenges says, “Expanding food production and economic growth have often come at a heavy cost to the natural environment.”
“Almost one-half of the forests that once covered the earth are now gone. Groundwater sources are being depleted rapidly. Biodiversity has been deeply eroded,” it notes. As a result, “planetary boundaries may well be surpassed, if current trends continue,” cautions FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva in his introduction to the report.
Essentially for Namibia and as the hunger season reaches its peak, most rural and farming households that were able to harvest last season are reported to have depleted their yield as the country’s food security weakens.
According to the Agricultural Input and Household Food Security Situation Report of December 2016 carried out by the division of National Warning and Food Information in the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry (MAWF) in the seven northern communal major crop producing regions, over 70 percent of Namibians derive their livelihoods directly or indirectly from agriculture which is mostly rain-fed agriculture.
The report indicates that over 700 000 (about 32 percent of the population) are affected by the current drought and about 595 839 continue to receive drought relief assistance from the Government. It was reported that last season’s harvest which was being supplemented with market purchases only lasted at most up to August leaving households completely dependent on the market and Drought Relief Food Programme to access food.
For this reason, food security remains a challenge that government needs to prioritise in order to avoid further holes in its poverty eradication mantra.
Without a push to invest in and retool food systems, far too many people will still be hungry in 2030 – the year by which the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) agenda has targeted the eradication of chronic food insecurity and malnutrition.
Similarly, without additional efforts to promote pro-poor development, reduce inequalities and protect vulnerable people, many people in Namibia would still be undernourished in 2030.
Given the limited scope for expanding agriculture’s use of more land and water resources, the production increases needed to meet rising food demand will have to come mainly from improvements in productivity and resource-use efficiency.
Namibia will need to shift to more sustainable food systems which make more efficient use of land, water, and other inputs and sharply reduce their use of fossil fuels, leading to a drastic cut of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions, greater conservation of biodiversity, and a reduction of waste. This will necessitate more investment in agriculture and agrifood systems, as well as greater spending on research and development.
Confidente. Lifting the Lid. Copyright © 2015