Minister of Agriculture, Water, and Land Reform, Carl Schlettwein, has distinguished four key entry points for positioning domestic agricultural producers to better leverage value chains in the sector and realise increasing value shares.
Schlettwein, who was speaking last week at the Keetmanshoop Agricultural & Industrial and Tourism Expo in the //Karas Region, highlighted that the first entry point regards the domestic value chain in the livestock and agronomic sub-sectors.
“For the livestock sub-sector, which is the mainstay for the majority of Namibian farmers, the existence of excess market demand is a favourable opportunity to improve domestic livestock productive capacity and to transform the sub-sector from a producer of raw materials to an exporter of finished livestock products by servicing these best paying markets with finished or intermediary goods. This requires that registered abattoirs are put to productive use, value chain industries such as meat processing plants and tanneries are harnessed, veterinary services are efficiently provided, and the public sector institutional capacity is improved to serve the sector better,” he said.
At this point in time, co-funding of value chain nodes with the support of the European Union under the Livestock Support Program, encompassing feedlots, artificial insemination centres, processing facilities, and expanded market access schemes, is underway to enhance efficiency mechanisms in the livestock subsector.
“The objective is to crowd-in producers, most specifically small-scale producers and women and youth farmers, into livestock value chains with market integration into regional and global value chains. Poultry and pork value chain schemes are promoted through input subsidies and market promotion schemes, respectively, to enable domestic players in these subsectors to realise gains and market share with significant domestic job content and revenue gains.”
He went on to say that the Poultry Value Chain Development Scheme has particularly rendered itself highly employment-intensive through high multiplier effects, enabling more domestic market-oriented flows, increasing value shares, and creating more jobs.
In the agronomic sector, the policy objective is to achieve scaled-up productive capacity for basic grains and cereals as basic staple foods for food self-sufficiency while allowing for diversification into high-value fruits, horticulture products, and crops. Such productive diversification and intensification extend well beyond the government-owned green schemes to include commercial and communal farming practices in the country. The Ministry continues to support agronomic producers through the Horticulture Support and Value Chain Development Scheme, focusing on technical capacity building and equipment support interventions.
“It is well known that the government has invested in the Green Scheme Projects with the objective of securing at least 27,000 hectares of land under irrigation while developing similar strategic projects such as the Hardap irrigation scheme. Considered alone, the schemes are sufficient to enable the country to achieve self-sufficiency in basic staple foods once effectively utilized. The domestic private sector, agri-entrepreneurs, and financiers are called upon to take advantage of these opportunities.
“There is substantial empirical evidence and market experience about input and product subsidies in the agricultural sector, regionally and globally. In as much as subsidies may have distortionary effects on prices, the Namibian agricultural sector and its nascent industries cannot withstand the uneven playing field in the global market for agricultural products, including those from advanced and emerging market economies, which are highly subsidized. We should, therefore, master the capacity to scale up the national subsidy program beyond the current discrete and underfunded, small incentive packages with limited outreach,” he said.
Secondly, the Minister said that regional value chains through the SADC and the African Continental Free Trade Area provide diverse entry points for the Namibian agriculture sector.
“Namibia has a distinct, perfect advantage of being wedged between the sizable economies of South Africa and Angola, providing effective demand for agricultural products. The African Continental Free Trade Area provides sizeable market access and opportunities for productive diversification in the sector, beyond the existing capacity of the domestic producers. This is in addition to market access agreements to which Namibia is party.”
Thirdly, Schlettwein said Namibia as a logistics hub for the sub-region is competitively poised to better harness global value chains in the sector. Being a gateway to landlocked SADC and international markets, Namibia is a natural epicentre for market agglomeration, assembly, and processing of final consumer goods through the importation of raw materials.
“This has further multiplier effects in the domestic economy and enables domestic industry players to participate in the global value chain setting,” he said.
Lastly, he said that the competitiveness of the agricultural sector depends on secure and affordable sources of energy, water, and fertilisers.
“The strategic shift towards intensive agriculture demands that we strengthen the nexus between water supply security and food security. This involves investments in replacing and upgrading our ageing water supply and distribution infrastructure, as well as developing additional water supply sources, including desalination of sea and brackish water, to be linked into our national integrated water supply system. And this speaks to Namibia’s harsh climatic conditions, hence our prompt actions to interlink various water sources across the country,” explained the Minister.