Farmers welcome rising level of Namibia’s Hardap Dam

Good rainfall in the catchment areas of the Hardap Dam near Mariental in Namibia have brought relief to that country’s irrigated crop producers and consequently the dairy industry.

The dam’s water level increased to 43% during February after it dried up in January, resulting in all irrigation being halted.

“Due to the drought, irrigation from the dam was so severely affected that production of animal feed came to a standstill. The increased level meant that about 50% of the crops planted before the dam ran dry could be saved,” said Kokkie Adriaanse, chairperson of the Namibian Dairy Producers’ Organisation.

The Hardap Dam, 22km north-west of Mariental, is Namibia’s largest dam; it has a capacity of 320 million cubic metres and a surface area of 25km2.

The Fish River north-west of Rehoboth, the Kalf River to the west of Kalkrand, and the Nomsas River north-west of Maltahöhe constitute the dam’s catchment area.

At the time of going to print, irrigation had not recommenced fully due to damage to the canal system, but was expected to resume soon, Adriaanse said.

He added that crops such as silage oats, lucerne, and silage maize were produced in the Hardap Irrigation Scheme, and these were vital for sustainable dairy production.

Importing feed from outside the country was exceedingly expensive. The decline in local feed production had resulted in milk production by intensive milking concerns being cut 300 000ℓ since October 2019. According to Adriaanse, the Dairy

Producers’ Organisation was still waiting for reaction from government following earlier talks about the possibility of a subsidy for animal feed.

“We simply cannot afford to buy animal feed anymore. Exorbitant transport costs, coupled with increasing feed costs, have markedly exacerbated the crisis.”

Short-term state subsidies for animal feed were vitally important to carry the industry through this “disastrous drought”, he said.

He added that the rest of southern Namibia was still extremely dry.

Producers were increasingly giving up their farming concerns and, according to Adriaanse, lack of demand for farms in the drought-stricken south of the country had made the situation worse. – Annelie Coleman