Namibia Workshop Presentations

Presenter: 
Horst Heimstadt

The presentation explores the potential application for Jatropha Curcas that will assist in improving crop production and therefore will contribute in poverty reduction for small-holder farmers in the rural areas of Northern Namibia.  The main challenges of smallholder farming in Africa are to increase production and preserve natural resources. This is not an easy challenge, but is the key to fighting hunger and poverty. Most of today’s pressing problems for rural people are related to management of land and water resources. The increase in population has meant that land is no longer enough to sustain the growing populations. Lands once used for grazing are being cultivated and the remaining grazing lands overexploited, resulting in loss of local plants and soil erosion.  Roughly 67% of Namibia’s population rely on subsistence farming whereof 70% are female (2001 Population Statistics).  The main challenges of smallholder farming in Namibia are:

• to increase production
• preserve natural resources
• markets (other than controlled products)
• unreliable and erratic rainfall is the norm
• droughts are prevalent
• soils are infertile
• small proportion of farmers use fertilizers
• crop and livestock are integrated
• few have ready access to draft power
• plant late or at high mechanical costs

Namibian Small Holder Farmers add less than 10 kilograms of fertilizer per hectare of land, be it manure or chemical fertilizer. On average recommended additions are approximately 200 kg of chemical fertilizer or 10 Mt of manure per ha of land.  Yields for Namibia Small-holder farmers have declined or stagnated (300 - 450 kg/haPear Millett) since the 1970s, and now stand at roughly one-third of what they should be (1 200 – 1 500 kg/ha).  Intercropping has been done for centuries; primarily for pest control, however intercropping does compete for water.

In conventional agriculture, soil tillage is considered one of the most important operations for creating a favourable soil structure, preparing a seedbed and controlling weeds.  Mechanical implements destroy the soil structure by reducing the aggregate size therefore currently conventional tillage methods are a major cause of soil loss and desertification. Tillage induced erosion leads to massive soil losses annually; this soil erosion is accelerated by wind and water.  As a consequence crop productivity is declining.  The reality is that successful farming depends on a healthy environment, rich soils, adequate water, biodiversity on and off the farm.  Much of that environment is already degraded. Farmers, government and society at large have the challenging but essential job of raising farm productivity while also protecting and enhancing the environment. Potentially the situation can be reversed by means of conservation agriculture.  Globally approved agriculture technology used to limit, arrest, or reverse the effects of unsustainable agricultural practices, with specific emphasise on:

• soil erosion,
• soil organic matter decline,
• physical degradation of the soil,

Whilst at the same time, conserving water, increasing crop yields and reducing excessive pesticide and labour.  

The principles of conservation agriculture include:

• Disturb the soil as little as possible:  reduce tillage to the bare minimum; at the very least, only rip planting lines or make holes with hand-hoes for planting seeds.
• Retain Crop Residue on the soil surface:  leave crop residue on the soil surface (minimum 33%) this will reduce soil erosion, conserve soil moisture whilst the organic material will enrich the soil.
• Rotate crop and apply crop management:  changing and rotating crops is important so that the life cycles of pests and diseases are broken.  To fix nitrogen levels in the soil.

Life Fencing includes densely planted row of plants to prevent livestock from entering unwanted areas.  This will protect fields from livestock, the seed/oil can be sold for cash, reduce erosion from wind and water and the seed cake can be used as organic fertilizer.