The Government has been urged to create an enabling environment, policies and programs that will attract more youth to venture into agriculture.
Various stakeholders have called for the transformation of the Agricultural sector so that it becomes attractive to the youth, as the world slowly moves to embrace climate-smart agribusiness.
More than 70% of Namibians depend on the agricultural sector for livelihood, but there are fears that the majority of youths are not showing any interest in livestock or horticulture production.
“Make the Agricultural sector sexy to the youth, because this is our niche that we have as a country. Therefore, our focus now is on investing and enhancing productivity. We have the best climate in Namibia, where we are not subjected to frost weather, hence we need to produce more and focus on investment,” said Leake Hangala, who was one of the participants at the recently held Country Private Sector Diagnostic session hosted by the World Bank Group.
Hangala said concerted efforts should be geared towards investing and improving the production of sub sectors such as grapes and berries, so that value can be enhanced, thereby leveraging more as the products reach a wider market.
“Let us not only produce for ourselves, rather have quality products that can be consumed all over the world. Rich states are rich because of exports; therefore, we need to embrace technology and improve production. However, this can only be achieved through investment,” said Hangala, who is also a businessman.
Another participant, Lahya Shitenga Hambinga, said the country should produce quality agriculture products that are competitive on the global market.
“The burning issue in Namibia is good standard products, we need to develop an agricultural standard that will give all farmers guidance as they embark on production,” she said.
In addition, she said the standards need to be simplified so that they are understood by everyone to improve conformity.
“Another issue will be establishing a quality certification scheme and a quality management system that can monitor manufacturing and production. With these strategies we can ensure a free flow trade,” added Hambinga.
The country’s agricultural sector is forecasted to grow by 3.8%, with 4.5% growth predicted for livestock farming, 3% for crop farming and 3.8% for fishing in 2022, according to the Bank of Namibia.
Agribank, whose mandate is to fund agricultural projects in the country, forecast a 4% growth in the agriculture sector for 2022.
This comes as Namibia’s export earnings from commodities of ‘Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing’ sector for the first quarter of 2022 amounted to N$4 billion, whereas the import bill stood at N$1.1 billion according to the Namibia Statistics Agency.
