This year, extreme drought claimed the lives of more than 60 thousand livestock in Namibia. This is reported by the Namibian media with reference to the Minister of Agriculture, Water and Forestry Alpheus Naruseb.

Naruseb spoke at a recent meeting with Prime Minister Saar Kuugongelva-Amadhila and other government officials. Raleigh Venter, Executive Director of the Namibian Agricultural Union (NAU), said he could not confirm the accuracy of this figure because the union did not know how it was calculated.

He added that Namibia, however, is in a “very critical phase” of drought that has swept most of the country since 2013. “Most of our livestock breeders had to sell more than half of their herds, and the rest of their animals survive only on stern, mainly made from invasive plants.

There are elderly local farmers who say they have never experienced such severe drought in 40-50 years of farming, ”he said.

NAU has established a disaster relief fund to raise donations from the private sector. These funds were used to subsidize the cost of emergency feed purchased by livestock breeders for feeding surviving animals.

“I still do not know any of our livestock farmers who would cease their activities. But most of them will experience serious cash flow problems over the next three to five years.

They will need to find additional sources of income to help their livestock operations recover from the end of the drought, ”said Naruseb.

Farmer's Weekly's attempts to confirm livestock numbers of 60,000 heads in the Namibian Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry, as well as in the office of the country's prime minister, were unsuccessful at the time of publication.