Crop sector must focus beyond market access; irrigation essential
Skilled workforce to drive growth
As a matter of urgency, Namibia must adopt irrigated farming to counter climate shocks and secure national food supplies.
While Namibia’s market share promotion scheme has yielded strong results in recent years, the country's crop sector now requires a more holistic approach across the value chain to sustain growth and improve food security, according to the CEO of the Namibian Agronomic Board (NAB), Fidelis Mwazi.Mwazi spoke during Nedbank Namibia’s sponsorship handover of N$560,000 towards the Agra Agricultural Academy, managed by Agra ProVision. This funding will cover twenty students’ registration and tuition fees, making education more accessible to aspiring agricultural professionals.
Value chain strategy to address market gaps
Mwazi said the NAB will soon launch a five-year crop value chain strategy, which has already been approved by the government.
While the current market share promotion scheme helped raise local production from 5% in 2000 to 47% of domestic market supply, some crops are showing limited growth. “Certain lines of produce are not growing. Others are already reaching the ceiling, and accessing the market becomes difficult,” he said.
He emphasised that the strategy will focus on strengthening the entire value chain, including inputs, production, processing, storage, and marketing. “Because produce that is not accessing the fresh market instantly needs to be channelled for value addition and processing. It's the only way we can create all these avenues, so that all locally produced products have access to the market.”
Irrigation no longer optional
Highlighting the growing impact of climate variability, Mwazi warned that continued reliance on rain-fed agriculture is not sustainable. “The days of relying solely on rain-fed agriculture are behind us. The shift to irrigated agriculture is no longer an option – it is essential, and it has to be done.”
He noted that the country managed to produce only 33,000 metric tonnes in 2024, compared to nearly 100,000 metric tonnes in good rainfall years. “You can already see the impact of the rainfall variability and what it brings in terms of production,” he said.
To respond to these challenges, the NAB is working to develop crop value chain financial packages that are accessible to farmers. “It means we need to have different schemes to entice financial packages that are more ready to be used by the farmers. If one wants to produce on 30 hectares, it means we need to have a financial package that satisfies that,” Mwazi said.
He added that any financing for irrigation must be backed by technical support. “If we, or the NAB, provide financing or subsidies to help farmers access irrigation equipment, we must also assign a particular consultant to support them,” Mwazi said. “That technical support is necessary to ensure the farmers achieve the expected yields and meet the targets for irrigated production.”
Developing skilled professionals
Mwazi stressed that achieving targets in productivity and food security depends on having a technically skilled workforce across the sector. “The future of the crop sector rests in the hands of its people – of our people within the nation.”
He said NAB’s graduate training programme will place students in specialised areas such as agronomy, plant health, and soil management. “These future professionals will be incubated within the NAB and placed within strategic farms to gain hands-on experience.”
The goal is to develop a pool of consultants and extension officers capable of supporting farmers in specific production zones. “If we now want to boost the production of potatoes and onions, we need to have a specialised programme with these agronomists so that they learn and understand how to disseminate information – to guide and allow farmers to produce and get those targeted yields they would like to achieve.”
Mwazi added that agriculture is a driver of employment across professions and regions.
“When we are putting up a production of agriculture, we would need an engineer, an agronomist, a soil scientist, a plumber, and even a medical doctor within the vicinity,” he said. “It’s more of an integrated approach – if we develop agriculture, we can realise long-term development and make a meaningful contribution to reducing unemployment.”
“So that’s why the concept of a super-farm model is very significant,” he concluded.