Major job losses in agri sector

The agricultural sector has lost a massive 89 540 jobs between 2014 and 2016 when the country was suffering consecutive drought years.

The sector, which is one of the largest employers in the country and also one of the biggest contributors to the GDP, shed more than 50% of its jobs during this period.

During 2014 a total of 165 000 people were employed as skilled labourers in the sector. This figure dropped to 75 714 last year. This is according to statistics released in the 2016 Namibian Labour Force Survey in comparison with the same survey conducted in 2014. The survey also shows that skilled agriculture, which was the number one occupation in the sector in 2014, accounting for 23.2% of the total jobs, had dropped to fourth position to account for 11.2% in 2016.

The agriculture, forestry and fishing economic sector remains the biggest employer in Namibia, accounting for 20.1% of the labour force. In 2014 it accounted for 29.5% of the labour force.

Last year there were a total of 477 558 people classified as employees, with the largest number coming from this sector (59 672).

About 132 422 of the total employees were own account workers. This group of people were also more concentrated in the agricultural sector, according to the survey.

“The unpaid family workers who made up 25 865 of employees were also concentrated in the agriculture and forestry sector with 11 966 people.”

According to the 2016 survey more males (70%) than females (29.5%) were working as subsistence farmers with paid employees and the total number of subsistence farmers employing people slightly increased from 5964 to 8 958.



The Namibia Agricultural Union (NAU) says there has been a big shift of job opportunities from the rural areas to urban areas.



According to the data, urban employment increased from 390 394 jobs in 2014 to 415 178 jobs, while in the rural areas it decreased by 41 5178 to 261 707 during that period.



“From the above it is clear that jobs increased by 6.3% in urban areas since 2014 whilst they have decreased by 18.8% in rural areas,” the union said.



The statistics furthermore show that the livelihoods of 58 878 subsistence farmers or communal farmers are vulnerable.



According to the labour force survey these people are unlikely to have formal work arrangements or access to benefits or social protection programmes, and they are more at risk to the effect of economic cycles.



“As presumed, all the job losses in agriculture were in the categories communal or small-scale farming and were most probably due to the drought. Communal and small-scale farmers are very vulnerable to droughts,” said the NAU.



The labour force survey added that the average monthly wage of a person in the agricultural sector is about N$2 252 in 2016. This was up from N$2 114 in 2014.



Based on the Agricultural Employers Association (AEA) wage survey, there are about 35 000 job opportunities in commercial agriculture (4 000 employers and 31 000 employees). Commercial agriculture thus comprises 26% of the total agricultural sector.



The average basic monthly pay of permanent employees on commercial farms amounted to N$1 975.12, while their total remuneration package amounted to N$3 320.64 on average.

ELLANIE SMIT