Role of Small-Stock in Safeguarding Food Security in Dry Lands: Case in Namibia

Abstract

Agricultural small-scale producers in communal areas found mainly in the northern and southern parts of Namibia keep small stock as a means to attain food security and wade off widespread poverty as many residents perceive poverty as having no livestock, land and water. Dependence on small-stock dates back over 1,000 years during when nomadic pastoralists shifted their settlements seasonally in search of water and grazing. Currently, small-stock farming is one of the four major farming systems dominantly practiced in the rugged lowlands of western parts of the country ideal for goat farming and in the rolling plains of southern Namibia ideal for extensive sheep grazing. The eastern part of the country is dominated by cattle ranching while an integrated farming system is practiced in northern communal lands where roaming cattle herds, goats and to a lesser extent sheep are prevalent. Indigenous breeds with valuable genetic properties that contribute to high fertility and resistance to disease survive well in all communal lands. Goats and sheep contribute substantially to household food security because they provide food and are easy to convert into quick cash required in meeting immediate household needs; they can also be bartered for household commodities. Small stock, mainly goats form part of government’s resettlement schemes initiated to mitigate poverty and secure food security among previously landless now settled as agricultural small-scale producers.