150 000 tonnes of maize, wheat needed

Namibia has 200 500 tonnes of cereal available for the current consumption period, which is a mere 57% of the country's needs.

This means the country will need to import 150 000 tonnes of cereal to cover the shortfall, consisting of 67 400 tonnes of wheat and 85 000 tonnes of maize.

According to the newly released Crop Prospect and Food Security Report for July, Namibia currently has 15 400 tonnes of wheat, 96 800 tonnes of white maize and 88 300 tonnes of pearl millet and sorghum.

Crop estimates indicate a substantial improvement in harvests, which are significantly higher than last season's.

The total cereal estimates indicate that the country is expecting an increase of at least 11% on last season's harvest and about 26% above the average production.

Namibia's total coarse grain production is estimated at 152 900 tonnes and consists of 59 300 tonnes of white maize, 83 500 tonnes of pearl millet, 4 000 tonnes of sorghum and 6 000 tonnes of wheat.

Last season the total cereal production stood at 137 500 tonnes while the average is 121 200 tonnes.

According to the report the increase in cereal production was the result of a very good harvest in the major crop-producing regions, following relatively favourable growing conditions during the past rainy season.

All major crop-producing regions showed above-average cereal production except the Zambezi Region, which produced about 1% less.

In the commercial farming areas, the harvest dropped from last season's 70 900 tonnes to 58 500 tonnes.

Compared to last season, commercial maize farmers harvested 19% less this year. Production dropped from 64 800 tonnes to 52 400 tonnes because of Fall Armyworm infestations and poor rainfall experienced earlier in the season.

There was poor rainfall in the dryland maize production areas, while Fall Armyworms affected dryland commercial producing areas as well as the government's Green Scheme irrigation schemes.

Maize production in the communal areas (Zambezi, Kavango East and Kavango West regions) increased 10%, from last season's 6 300 tonnes to 6 900 tonnes. This increase is attributed good rains during the last three months of the season.

Pearl millet production showed considerable improvement, with the harvest increasing 45% from 57 600 to 83 500 tonnes.

“All the major pearl-millet-producing regions recoded above-average production, except the Zambezi Region, where pearl millet production was reported to have been affected by excessive water,” says the report.

Sorghum production also showed a significant improvement of 45% compared to last season, increasing from 2 800 tonnes to 4 000 tonnes.

The total planted area for cereal coarse grain for the 2017/2018 cropping season is estimated at 304 300 hectares, reflecting a reduction of 6% of last season when 332 700 hectares were planted and 10% below the average planted area of 338 100 hectares.

This reduction is attributed largely to poor rainfall earlier in the season as well as the Fall Armyworms in the commercial area. It was reported that some of the Green Scheme farmers planted legumes (groundnuts) instead of maize this season in order to break the life cycle of the Fall Armyworms.

The report further noted that household food security has improved significantly because of the good harvest. The harvest will be sufficient to sustain rural households until the next harvest in May 2019.

ELLANIE SMIT