Namibia to Develop New Conservation Agriculture Framework to Ensure Food Security
Speaking at a workshop to develop the Comprehensive Conservation Agriculture Program, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization Assistant Representative Ferdinard Mwapopi said the framework is to help farmers increase production and productivity, thus reducing risks and building resilience to climate change, Xinhua reported.
"Despite agricultural productivity increasing in some countries in the SADC (Southern African Development Community) region, others like Namibia remain net importers of food data-x-items and are thus highly exposed to environmental and economic factors prevailing in food exporting countries, making them vulnerable to shocks," he said, adding that the situation is further exacerbated by poor farming methods, high levels of soil degradation and desertification resulting in low agricultural productivity.
Droughts and prolonged dry spells also worsen the situation as they result in severe crop damage or complete crop failures placing many people at risk of hunger, he noted.
Conservation agriculture principles which include minimal soil disturbance, permanent soil cover, and crop rotation, are universally applicable in all agricultural landscapes and cropping systems, Mwapopi said.
He said that this intervention is especially important for smallholder farmers who despite managing over 80 percent of the world's estimated 500 million small farms and providing over 80 percent of the food consumed in a large part of the developing world, are still largely overlooked and left to face challenges such as access to production inputs associated with high prices and lack of access to credits.
"To effectively motivate these food heroes to adopt conservation agriculture and associated climate-smart practices, it is imperative to further improve information dissemination and awareness creation as well as support to demonstrate conservation agriculture practices and sharing of experiences among farmers and policymakers," he added.
Stakeholders are meeting from Nov. 14 to 18 to reflect on lessons learned as well as to craft a new framework to pave a new pathway for conservation agriculture adoption in Namibia and transition from traditional farming methods toward climate-smart agriculture practices.
Conservation agriculture is highlighted in Namibia's 5th National Development Plan for 2017-2022 in which 13,000 farmers were targeted to adopt at least one of the practices, such as minimum tillage, crop rotation, and organic soil cover.
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