Veg and grains doing well

Namibia is becoming more self-sufficient in terms of food production as it grows its local horticultural and crop production.
In its latest annual report, the Namibia Agronomic Board says that the total value on producer level that was obtained for horticulture products through the formal market increased to N$621 million in 2015 compared with N$549 million in 2014, with a total tonnage of 75 000 achieved in 2015.
The domestic formal market purchases increased with 20% from 2006 to 2015, and achieved an increase from N$9.6 million in 2006 to N$207 million in 2015.
This growth is achieved by the successful implementation of the Namibian Market Share Promotion (MSP) which creates a more favourable market environment for local producers.
Due to MSP the reduction in marketing risk stimulated import substitution, whereby existing producers increased the area under production, new producers started planting for the formal market and the Green Schemes increased horticultural production output.
In total 27 122 tonnes of horticultural products were sourced locally while 47 384 tonnes were imported.
The horticulture products with the highest demand in Namibia are potatoes, onions, apples tomatoes, bananas, carrots, lettuce cabbage, oranges and sweet peppers.
Domestic production of potatoes increased from 7 911 tonnes in 2014 to 9 328 tonnes in 2015. Namibia imported 19 125 tonnes of washed and unwashed potatoes in 2015, and exported 2 715 tonnes of unwashed potatoes when seasonal surpluses exceeded the market demand.
According to the report the potato market continues to be an opportunity for producers, although Namibian production conditions are challenging during months of high temperatures and frost.
Meanwhile the domestic production increased from 13 308 tonnes in 2014 to 15 619 tonnes in 2015, of which 6337 tonnes were traded in the domestic formal market, and 9 288 tonnes were exported in 2015 during the time of overproduction.
Over the last couple of years maize consumption in Namibia has increased quite significantly from 112 899 tonnes in 2007 to 151 960 tonnes last year.
However the production of maize locally has also increased and dryland production in Namibia has grown from 16 622 tonnes planted in 2007 to 35 308 tonnes planted in 2015 and the production of irrigated maize has also increased from 27 743 tonnes to 34 125 tonnes.
During the 2014/15 financial year Namibia still imported 82 527 tonnes of maize while in 2007/8 it imported about 72 534 tonnes.
The report notes though that the effect of the drought on rain-fed crop production is a major concern especially for the production of mahangu and white maize.
According to the report by 2015 there was 225 831 hectares of mahangu planted in comparison with 2006 when 194 788 hectares were planted, however the actual production during the period dropped from 44 450 tonnes to 28 584 tonnes.
Since 2006 the harvest that was procured locally decreased slightly from 1 650 tonnes to 1 014 tonnes in 2015.
With regards to wheat production in Namibia local production has slightly decreased from 12 163 tonnes in 2007 to 11 600 tonnes in 2005. The domestic consumption of wheat has however grown from 70 361 tonnes to 114 635 in 2015 while Namibia imported 103 035 tonnes in 2015.