Transform rural areas through agriculture - Saisai
Agriculture is a tool that can be used to unlock the potential of rural areas, stimulate economic activity, create employment opportunities and reduce the rate of rural-to-urban migration.
To address the challenges associated with this migration, it is time collective efforts are directed towards using agriculture as a mechanism to transform rural areas and maximise on the opportunities this sector offers.
This according to Agribank’s technical advisor for crops and poultry, Hanks Saisai, who said Namibia’s rural areas are usually characterised by a composition of children between the ages of one and seven and elderly people over 60 who are involved in primary agriculture such as dryland crop production, small-scale horticulture production and the rearing of livestock.
He said many rural areas in Namibia continue to experience an alarming rate of rural-to-urban migration.
Rural-to-urban migration is defined as the movement of people from the countryside (rural areas) to towns and cities in search of better opportunities and living conditions, Saisai said.
He added that this type of migration has several implications, most prominent of which is the uncontrolled growth of populations in towns or cities and the mushrooming of informal settlements.
This places significant pressure on municipalities to deliver services such as sanitation, electricity, water, housing, roads and other infrastructure.
Lack of manpower
Rural-to-urban migration also leads to the depopulation of rural areas as the working age groups between 18 and 55 move to urban areas in search of employment opportunities, creating a lack of much-needed manpower to carry to carry out agricultural operations, he said.
“At national level, we need to develop strategies that consider grassroots-level contexts and identify possible courses of action that can be implemented to address issues aligned to specific agroecological zones.”
Saisai said some suggestions to address challenges associated with migration are that each region should undergo an in-depth assessment to determine possible projects that can be introduced or revived in targeted rural areas.
For example, an assessment focusing on the Zambezi, Kavango East and Kavango West regions revealed that these regions collectively contribute about 34% towards local production volumes of horticultural products, according to him.
To this end, local farming communities in these regions could benefit from capacity-building interventions that aim to equip them with information on the importance of being a registered producer, identifying the right crop varieties needed by respective markets and market production forecasts to ensure that production responds to market patterns, he said.
“Moreover, comprehensive projects that support value chain production stages should be introduced to support primary agriculture involving the tilling of land and rearing of livestock as well as processing and packaging plants that add value to raw commodities.”
Employment creation
Saisai added that the inclusion of a processing and packaging plant in key production rural areas serves as an employment creation strategy in rural areas.
This can create much-needed jobs in the production, harvesting, sorting and packaging of commodities. These projects must focus on employing locals and upscaling their knowledge and skills, he said.
“Furthermore, emphasis on the importance of organised agriculture is required as well as assistance to farmers to secure market avenues for their produce through strategies such as buying local and ensuring that policies - such as the import ban - are implemented.”
This could entice more young people to be involved in agriculture, he noted.
To address the challenges associated with this migration, it is time collective efforts are directed towards using agriculture as a mechanism to transform rural areas and maximise on the opportunities this sector offers.
This according to Agribank’s technical advisor for crops and poultry, Hanks Saisai, who said Namibia’s rural areas are usually characterised by a composition of children between the ages of one and seven and elderly people over 60 who are involved in primary agriculture such as dryland crop production, small-scale horticulture production and the rearing of livestock.
He said many rural areas in Namibia continue to experience an alarming rate of rural-to-urban migration.
Rural-to-urban migration is defined as the movement of people from the countryside (rural areas) to towns and cities in search of better opportunities and living conditions, Saisai said.
He added that this type of migration has several implications, most prominent of which is the uncontrolled growth of populations in towns or cities and the mushrooming of informal settlements.
This places significant pressure on municipalities to deliver services such as sanitation, electricity, water, housing, roads and other infrastructure.
Lack of manpower
Rural-to-urban migration also leads to the depopulation of rural areas as the working age groups between 18 and 55 move to urban areas in search of employment opportunities, creating a lack of much-needed manpower to carry to carry out agricultural operations, he said.
“At national level, we need to develop strategies that consider grassroots-level contexts and identify possible courses of action that can be implemented to address issues aligned to specific agroecological zones.”
Saisai said some suggestions to address challenges associated with migration are that each region should undergo an in-depth assessment to determine possible projects that can be introduced or revived in targeted rural areas.
For example, an assessment focusing on the Zambezi, Kavango East and Kavango West regions revealed that these regions collectively contribute about 34% towards local production volumes of horticultural products, according to him.
To this end, local farming communities in these regions could benefit from capacity-building interventions that aim to equip them with information on the importance of being a registered producer, identifying the right crop varieties needed by respective markets and market production forecasts to ensure that production responds to market patterns, he said.
“Moreover, comprehensive projects that support value chain production stages should be introduced to support primary agriculture involving the tilling of land and rearing of livestock as well as processing and packaging plants that add value to raw commodities.”
Employment creation
Saisai added that the inclusion of a processing and packaging plant in key production rural areas serves as an employment creation strategy in rural areas.
This can create much-needed jobs in the production, harvesting, sorting and packaging of commodities. These projects must focus on employing locals and upscaling their knowledge and skills, he said.
“Furthermore, emphasis on the importance of organised agriculture is required as well as assistance to farmers to secure market avenues for their produce through strategies such as buying local and ensuring that policies - such as the import ban - are implemented.”
This could entice more young people to be involved in agriculture, he noted.
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