Only 11 000 ha developed for irrigation

Only 27 000 hectares of land in Namibia have been identified as suitable for irrigation, of which a mere 11 000 hectares are currently developed for irrigation by the government and the private sector.

The government is offering investment opportunities in four Green Scheme projects and one dairy project to the local private sector as well as international investors, with capacity to operate the schemes through competitive bidding process on a Build Operate and Transfer (BOT) basis.

The four include the Katima Mulilo-Liselo, Zone green, Neckartal, and the Tandjieskoppe green schemes as well as the Uvungu Vungu Dairy project.

These are projects for which land is already secured.

Although it is not an eligibility requirement, joint ventures between local and foreign investors are encouraged and supported.

The Green Scheme programme encourages the development of irrigated agronomic production with a target to place approximately 27 000 hectares under irrigation.

Deputy agriculture minister Anna Shiweda said this during a virtual address to the World Economic Forum in Davos when she gave a speech about agricultural investment opportunities in Namibia, specifically in the Green Scheme projects.

According to her the investments are expected to promote the production of grains as basic staple food to reach food self-sufficiency, while allowing investors to diversify production into high-value horticulture, crops and fruits.

By-products

She further said having followed past discussions on the new opportunities in the Green Hydrogen Industry, it is evident that the Namibian agriculture sector also finds itself in peculiar times, in which through horizontal integration and synergies, the trajectory of high production inputs costs of the agriculture sector could be changed in the positive direction.

“The ammonia by-product presents a viable investment opportunity for fertiliser production industry in Namibia to supply affordable fertiliser in the country and for export markets.”

Shiweda added that affordable desalinated water from the Green Hydrogen Industry could be utilised to increase irrigation production, while lower-cost power from renewable sources would potentially improve the business cases for many primary and processing agricultural industries.

According to her the agriculture sector is still amongst the most important sectors to the nation and economy as 70% of the Namibian population continues to directly or indirectly derive their livelihoods from the sector.

“The sector further continues to employ over 27% of the total work force in the country.”

On the marketing side, the beef sector continues to take advantage of preferential market access opportunities offered by the various Free Trade Agreements that Namibia is party to as well as under unilateral trade preference offerings under African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) AGOA, the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and the Norwegian Generalised System of Preferences (GSP).

“However, there remains an untapped potential to process, market and/or export meat from Namibia’s Northern Communal Areas (NCAs) where majority of Namibia population lives.”

Shiweda further said that as a net importer of staple grains, Namibia effectively loses out on generating potential foreign currency by taking advantage of preferential market access offered under FTAs and GSPs.

“Maximising the production potential of green scheme projects could potential convert Namibia into a net exporter of variety quality crop products.”