Food sovereignty: A step forward in improving local food systems

Food security and political stability are often linked. Food security can be upset by a lack of political or social stability. Similarly, the lack of food security resulting from a sudden jolt (poor climate, international embargo, war) can lead to political instability (Smith, 1998). Right now, food insecurity is rising across the globe amid the Russia-Ukraine crisis. Russia is a major player in the fertilizer market, and Ukraine is the world’s number one wheat exporter. The two countries collectively export approximately 25% of the world’s wheat. Russia is a significant contributor to the fertilizer industry, accounting for 13% of global output (Ndidi, 2022). At present, the world is facing a potential food crisis, with soaring food prices and millions in danger of severe hunger, as the conflict threatens supplies of key staple crops, the United Nations

Food and Agriculture Organisation (UNFAO) has warned. Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, food prices were already high, the global food systems were brought to knees, thus affecting millions of people. The additional strain of war could tip the global food system into disaster.

The worst food price spikes in recent memory struck in 2007 to 2008 and resumed from 2010 to 2012, caused by high energy prices followed by poor weather. Those sudden peaks contributed to riots and political upheavals, the shocks of which are still being felt. In Namibia, the 2019 drought, which was sparked by climate change shocked our food systems, this was followed by xenophobic attacks in South Africa which halted our food supply chain. In 2020, Covid-19 further thwacked Namibia’s agriculture sector.

Moving forward, Namibia is praised by the international community for being one of the world’s politically stable states but yet one of the world’s food insecure nation. In recent years, the Namibian government has put forward some measures to improve Namibia’s food security status but still Namibia imports more than 60% of its food items. Policies such as the Dryland crop production which runs through the northern and north eastern regions are in place but yet we are experiencing undesirable results. Dryland crop production is commonly practised in Namibia’s Omaheke, Oshikoto, Oshana, Omusati, Ohangwena, Kavango West, Kavango East and Zambezi regions. This form of agriculture focuses on producing major staple grains, and relies solely on rainfall as the only source of water supply to crop fields. Recently, the Namibian newspaper reported that, maize imports reached N$100 million in January 2022 despite the fact that Zambezi maize farmers for instance did not have a good market for their maize produce last year. The government has provided farming equipment to the people through the dryland crop production initiatives in order to work the land but the production is still below average. Now, what is the problem? Yes, one can site the issue of climate change such as droughts as the cause of food insecurity in our country but yet the Zambezi, Orange, Kavango, Linyanti, Chobe and Kwando rivers live in abundance. These rivers can power irrigation schemes to maximum potential.

Food security activists, agronomists, agriculturalists, and other various stakeholders have urged the Namibian government to pump more money into the agriculture sector but it seems their advocacy is in vain. With dwindling efforts to maximise food production, this author believes the Namibian government, the private sector and communities across our country should work towards food sovereignty. According to the Declaration of Nyéléni which took place in Mali on 27 February 2007, food sovereignty is the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems. Food systems embrace the entire range of actors and their interlinked value-adding activities involved in the production, aggregation, processing, distribution, consumption, and disposal (loss or waste) of food products that originate from agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and food industries, and the broader economic, societal, and natural environments in which they are embedded (European Commission, 2021). Ironically, food sovereignty puts the aspirations and needs of those who produce, distribute and consume food at the heart of food systems and policies rather than the demands of markets and corporations. More so, food sovereignty values the sharing of local knowledge and skills that have been passed down over generations for sustainable food production free from technologies that undermine health and well-being. Furthermore, food sovereignty emphasises the bottom up production, from the farmers, fishers, indigenous peoples and landless workers most impacted by global hunger and poverty. Food sovereignty goes well beyond ensuring that people have enough food to meet their physical needs. It asserts that people must reclaim their power in the food system by rebuilding the relationships between people and the land, and between food providers and those who eat. While corporations and governments profit from top-down, marketdriven policy approaches, food sovereignty is an approach focused instead on people and communities.

According to the United States of America Food Sovereignty Alliance (USAFSA) (2022), food sovereignty is based on the following principles: Focuses on food for people. Food sovereignty puts the right to sufficient, healthy and culturally appropriate food for all at the centre of food, agriculture, livestock and fisheries policies. Values food providers. Food sovereignty values all those who grow, harvest and process food, including women, family farmers, herders, fisher people, forest dwellers, indigenous peoples, and agricultural, migrant and fisheries workers. Localises food systems. Food sovereignty brings food providers and consumers closer together so they can make joint decisions on food issues that benefit and protect all. Puts control locally. Food sovereignty respects the right of food providers to have control over their land, seeds and water and rejects the privatisation of natural resources. Builds knowledge and skills. Food sovereignty values the sharing of local knowledge and skills that have been passed down over generations for sustainable food production free from technologies that undermine health and well-being. Works with nature. Food sovereignty focuses on production and harvesting methods that maximise the contribution of ecosystems, avoid costly and toxic inputs and improve the resiliency of local food systems in the face of climate change.

To end, the “global unforeseen factors” keep affecting Namibia’s food systems. It is not getting any better, for us as a nation to become ignorant about improving our food systems. As a nation, we have witnessed how climate change, Covid-19 and the ongoing Ukraine crisis have affected Namibia’s food security status. It is morally wrong to continue allocating more money on defence than agriculture, spending more money protecting very important persons (VIPs) than you spend on agriculture, and losing state funds through systematic and grand corruption while thousands of Namibians live in poverty and hunger, while children are dying of malnutrition due to lack of nutritious food and insufficient food commodities. I strongly believe that Namibia can feed itself but only if our government invests more in the agriculture sector by maximising food security efforts and working towards food sovereignty. No country can be an island, but my dream is to see this great nation feeding itself than surviving through imports and handouts.