Flash floods devastate Zambezi crops

Heavy rainfall in the Zambezi region is flooding crop fields, putting farmers’ livelihoods at risk just before harvest.

Farmers in the Katima Mulilo Rural and Linyanti constituencies have been affected, with hopes of a good harvest seriously threatened.

The Zambezi region has received above-normal rainfall for the past months, with the Namibia Meteorological Services predicting over 300mm of rain between January and March.

Tololi village farmer Given Mulike told The Namibian last Sunday that what is happening is a natural disaster.

He said two of his four hectares are submerged by flash floods and there is nothing he can do about it.

He estimated that about 50 hectares of farmers’ crop fields are affected in the area.

“We have been praying for rain during drought, but now the rain is too much.

I started ploughing in November, and the maize was growing nicely. But the rain wiped out half of my field.

I don’t know if at all or how much I will be able to harvest,” he said.

Another farmer in the Iseke area, Grant Kabajani, says majority of his maize field is damaged, adding that he is only left with one hectare out of his three ploughed hectares.

“I have little hope that the remaining hectare will survive because we are expecting more rain.

It’s really a tough situation,” he says.

He says he could have harvested something by now, but he was unable to plough earlier because he had to rely on a government tractor, which is in high demand.

“I had to wait for the government tractors and only ploughed in January so now my fields got flooded.

The government must make more tractors available because the demand is high and tractors do not reach all of us in time,” he says.

Similarly, another Tololi village farmer, Namasiku Mukusi, says she is left with too little from her one hectare of maize.

She says she informed the constituency office of her problem and she was told to submit pictures and videos of her field’s condition.

“I barely have anything left to harvest. I don’t know what the constituency office is going to do with the pictures, as they did not promise anything,” she says.

Linyanti constituency councillor Progress Sipapela yesterday told The Namibian that 12 families’ crop fields have been completely destroyed by flash floods, resulting in them not harvest anything.

He added that his office, along with the regional disaster risk management committee, has assessed the damaged crop and submitted reports to the Office of the Prime Minister.

“The prime minister’s office will then have to get back to us as to how we can assist these families,” he said.

The region’s food security and farmers’ livelihoods have also been affected by ongoing locusts and armyworm outbreaks.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Land Reform attributes the locust outbreak to the rain, as the wet conditions are creating favourable breeding conditions for locusts.

Over 947 hectares of fields are infested with locusts, while 3 119 hectares of crop fields have been scouted.

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