Through the project 18 000 farmers will be trained in Conservation Agriculture in the country ©FAO/P Tobias

Last month, a group of 32 agricultural extension officers from across all 14 regions in Namibia attended a planning and inception workshop in Otjiwarongo as part of the project Strengthening Coordination, Scaling Up and Governance of Conservation Agriculture in Southern Africa (SUCASA).

The inception workshop, which was organised by FAO Namibia in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Land Reform (MAWLR), highlighted the project objectives, anticipated results and activities. The workshop also provided an opportunity to discuss the project’s timeline and sought to clarify the roles and responsibilities of the implementing partners involved, forging ownership and commitment within the targeted regions.

At country level, the SUCASA project, through its implementing partners FAO Namibia and MAWLR, aims to promote and enable the adoption of CA to around 18 000 farmers in Namibia by 2025.

Speaking during her welcoming remarks, Mildred Kambinda, Director of the Directorate of Agricultural Extension and Engineering Services within MAWLR, highlighted the threats and challenges posed by climate change in the country.

“Climate change is real and very visible to the naked eye, therefore we need to continue farming in a climate smart way in order to mitigate the adverse impacts brought forth by this serious threat,” she said.

Kambinda further encouraged the participants to embrace Conservation Agriculture (CA), acknowledging its fundamental role in safeguarding food security.

“We can no longer depend on old methods when the current situation demands us to adapt and maintain new and progressive techniques to help us cope under such challenging circumstances,” Kambinda said. Namibia is considered one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change and the country’s farmers struggle with increasingly erratic rainfall patterns and the often-subsequent poor crop yields.

During the workshop the agricultural extension officers submitted training plans for their Farmer Field Days (training days) within their respective regions in order for them to be equipped with the necessary resources to facilitate the training sessions.

The main aim of the project is to support collective efforts to accelerate the scaling up of CA among smallholder farmers in Southern Africa. The adoption of CA will help make food systems more resilient and increase the food and nutrition security of farmers, thereby contributing to the Malabo Declaration, through which African Heads of State committed to having 25 million farmers adopt climate resilient production systems by 2025.

Read more about Conservation Agriculture in Southern Africa.