Times are Changing

To acknowledge that times are changing is hardly insightful. Nor is it particularly revolutionary. It is not as if no one has noticed it before and it is not as if everyone else is contesting this fact. But what we do with this realisation is key. How do we act, if we act at all?

As winter is moving toward spring and we are getting ready for the agricultural season, I could not help but think about this coming rainy season. Will this be a good one? Will it be sufficient to break the drought? Or should we get ready for another year of agricultural misery?

Given the current state of the economy, will we as a nation even be able to handle another dry year? Gloom threatened to conquer my mind.

Climate change is perhaps the single most important developmental challenge of our time. Yet, other than poking our heads in the ground and denying that there is such a problem, here in Namibia, we seem to be ill-prepared for its effects.

Consider the following facts in assessing our progress to what the World Food Programme refers to as Zero Hunger:

1. Our agricultural methods (both subsistence and commercial) are not effective. Only about 40% of the food we consume is produced locally. The country relies on imports to cover the deficit. Imported food is expensive and prices fluctuate frequency. Almost 30% of Namibian households have difficulty accessing food. Overall, 80% of Namibians have to buy food to feed themselves.

2. Many Namibians, including small-scale farmers, have problems with access to nutritious food due to recurrent droughts, floods, low productivity and limited access to land. These translate into poorly diversified diets and persistent malnutrition. Overall, one quarter of Namibian children under the age of five experience stunted growth, and in some rural areas, it is as high as 30%.

3. Back in 2017, 17% of the Namibian population was considered poor and unemployment was around 35%.

The picture with regard to food security in Namibia is bleak; in fact, I would consider it very bleak.

Namibians are eternal optimists when it comes to rain. Everyone I spoke to this past week agreed to the fact that they have ‘a feeling’ this is going to be a good rainy season.

Recently, the Afrobarometer published a report on Africans’ perceptions and opinions on climate change. They include the following:

1. Most Africans say climatic conditions for agricultural production has got worse in their region over the past decade. Although 34% of Namibians agreed with this observation, 20% felt it had actually got better. Although it is possible that this number will decrease because of the current drought (and the Namibian data is from 2017), one still wonders where such opinions come from.

2. Ignorance may have something to do with it. According to the Afrobarometer survey, Namibia ranks among Africa’s least literate countries on climate change. Nearly half the population (48%) claimed they have no knowledge of climate change. Only 28% of Africans are fully ‘climate change literate’.

3. According to the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative Index, Namibia is ranked 127th on its list of over 180 countries with regard to food vulnerability. This score takes into account many of the issues we have raised thus far: Food production and demand, nutrition, and rural population. It uses indicators such as projected change of cereal yields and population growth, food import dependency, rural population, agriculture capacity, and child malnutrition.

The times are changing, and we seem to be ignorant and unprepared for it. The current drought is a sign of times to come. Even if the next season brings good rains, it will bring only temporary relief.

It is time for us to change our minds about the changes in our climate. Education is clearly needed. But there are many more decisions to be made. Take agricultural production for example: The current system is not working, that is clear, and everyone should agree with it. It needs to be overhauled and changed at its core.

New production techniques that require little or no soil and water are needed. They are available but require adopting the appropriate technology and producing the appropriate skills. This will require political willpower.

Old techniques that are water- and land-dependent should be phased out. Land reform makes no change to our agricultural output. Who wants land if there is no rain? Who can farm if there is no rain? By putting more people on unproductive farmland, we are not doing ourselves, and them, a favour. We need to move on and ‘get with the changing times’.

Elections are on the way and promises will be made. Is it not time we take a stand?

Tell our leaders that the times are changing and they need to move along or step aside.

We are in deep trouble and now is the time to deal with it.

• 1 pig head

• 900 grams mirepoix, (equal amounts of finely chopped carrot, celery and onions)

• 5 grams black pepper

• 5 grams fennel seeds

• 5 grams mustard seeds

• 5 cloves garlic

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