Regenerating Namibia’s soils

Colin Nott - When it rains in Namibia, all of us smile and the happiness is contagious. Thoughts of the last devastating drought dissipate as we look forward to a good year ahead. Most farmers in Namibia have already received good rains and we are hopeful for those who have not. Most of our dams are full and our rivers have flowed. We have shared pictures of dams overflowing, cars getting stuck, waterfalls flowing and people having fun in the water. It is all good – but is it really? Our rivers are chocolate brown and silt laden and our dams although full, are brown and loaded with soil from their catchments. All is not as good as it could be. Many title deed and communal livestock farmers now have grass, but in many cases most of their livestock died in the last drought. Two years ago we had a major grain crop failure in Namibia. RESILIENCENamibia’s soils are no longer resilient and as a result most of our farmers are no longer resilient, the livestock and crop industries and all their supporting industries are no longer resilient, our Meat Board and Agronomic Board incomes are now more variable and the resilience of our banks is under threat because loans can’t be serviced. This has been aggravated by the Covid-19 pandemic, but the cause of this lack of resilience is largely due to a loss of carbon from our soils. This is due to the ongoing application of inappropriate rangeland and crop management practices throughout Namibia. Inappropriate rangeland or crop management results firstly in a decline in the nett primary production of soils (the soils grow less food or forage). After this soil carbon is lost from the soil and, with this, goes the soil structure and ability of the soil to hold water in the soil. This poor management results in dead soils with hard capped surfaces, extensive bare ground and these areas are largely dominated by annual grasses and/or bush thickening has taken place and overall biodiversity is very low. Our rivers now flow brown and our full dams are brown because our soil carbon has been lost, our soils cannot hold water anymore and rainwater water flows off the land and as it picks up speed it takes our topsoil with it. Take a moment to look at the brown full dams and give a thought to the farmers lost livelihood and the impact that this is having on the entire soil based value chain. If you think your business is not impacted - think again because if you are selling houses or cars or other products or services - You are being impacted. RANGELANDNamibia’s 60 million ha that are suitable for livestock (domestic and wildlife) production and the 2 million ha used for crop production in have virtually all lost soil carbon and soil structure, and productivity is severely constrained. The rangelands have lost many of their perennial grasses and herbs, lost soil cover, the biodiversity of plants has decreased and overall production has declined. Of the 60 million ha that has degraded, 45 million ha in Namibia is now severely bush encroached. In Namibia sustainable stocking rates have been reduced in many parts of the country to 50% of what they were 50 to 100 years ago. This means that our land can now only support 50% of the animals it did 50 to 100 years ago. In terms of crop production - if you are using a disk harrow and if you are applying inorganic fertiliser – you are losing soil carbon, you are killing microbes and as a result your soil structure and available nutrients are in decline. Under these conditions the input costs of crop and livestock farmers are increasing. Decreasing productivity per ha, with increasing costs per ha – is not a place any business wants to find itself in. If you don’t reverse this – your soil based businesses will go out of business at some point. This is where we are – and where many dry climates of the world (5,2 billion ha) and soil based industries world-wide find themselves.Fortunately however, we now understand more about what causes degradation and how best to reverse this. What needs to be done is quite simple, but in order to be successful all the key people in the value chain (producers, support agencies, input suppliers, financiers, boards, extension offices etc.) need to change. It will be to each and every one of their financial advantage to do so. The challenge is that people don’t change easily. MANAGEMENTThe most profitable way to grow more forage for your livestock or to improve your crop profitability is for your management to improve the soils by enabling plants and microbes to add carbon and nutrients to the soil once more. If this is done, soil life will be encouraged, more nutrients will be made available to plants and soil structure will be re-built over time. The plants you grow will become more dense, more diverse and more nutrient dense. Your management will over time grow you more forage or food of a better quality and you will be able to hold more livestock over time, with fewer inputs and your products for sale will be of a higher quality. We now know that all this can be achieved by changing the management on your farm. You as a farmer are entirely in control of the type of management you apply. Fortunately, there are a number of world renowned scientists working on how this works (for example Christine Jones and Gabe Brown). They and others will tell us that our planet is essentially a planet of plants and microbes. Plants make up about 80% of the planets living carbon and microbes make up a further 18% of our planets living carbon. All other life forms (man, livestock, game, fish, insects etc) make up the remaining 2% of living carbon on this planet. Most importantly however plants and microbes depend on one another. It is vital that land managers, support organisations, financiers, enablers, boards etc. understand this relationship. So when they apply their management, enable, support or control they will be doing this to encourage plants to feed more microbes (plants create sugars from sunlight and CO2, through photosynthesis and pump these sugars (carbon) into the soil to feed the microbes), the microbes in return utilise this energy, multiply and take in minerals from the surrounding soil. When these microbes die (they have a short life span), the carbon, energy and minerals and nutrients made by the microbes are taken up by the plant roots. In addition the microbes re-build soil structure and this increases the soil moisture holding capacity, which stimulates growth of the plant and microbes. These factors increase biodiversity to a tipping point where forage and food production and forage for food quality increase further. During this process the improving soil microbiome interacts with plant seeds (perennial grass, herbs, shrubs etc.) causing them to germinate into these now favourable conditions. In this way the growing season is extended and palatable plants return that have been absent for decades from the farm. Through this process – in the livestock sector the sustainable stocking rate is increased (more forage is produced) and in the crop scenario inputs costs decline dramatically and profits in both is enhanced. The final product will be more nutrient dense (better quality). If this were to be achieved in all 60 million ha of rangelands and 2 million ha of croplands, our dams would fill, but be clear, our soils would be covered with productive plants and the entire value chain revitalised. Our water tables would fill once more and we would be more resilient and more stable as a people and a country. STRATEGYFortunately for Namibia, the ministry of Agriculture, water and land reform, as well as farmers' unions, developed a National Regenerative Agriculture Strategy in 2019 that enables a partnership approach to revitalising the livestock industry (http://www.agrinamibia.com.na/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/NRMPS-Revised-Strategy-2019-Rangeland-Best-Practices-final.pdf) The focus of this national strategy, developed by Namibian farmers, is to enable and support management to change to increase soil carbon which will lead to the far reaching positive effects described above. The three agricultural unions (NAU, NECFU and NNFU) financially supported the continuation of this strategy during 2020. The three unions identified priorities that will accommodate the majority of the people in Namibia and have a regenerative crop development program planned for the northern communal areas and a regenerative livestock program planned that will deal with the majority of the land in the country. These two priorities require the active support and enabling by the entire value chain. To achieve these priorities the three unions have established a Namibia Agricultural Industry Committee (NAIC) and believe that because this is a Namibian problem the industry must own it and be financially committed to it. Key Namibian Banks and Boards within the country are being engaged to be actively involving in revitalising the agricultural and wildlife industry which is important to much of the tourism industry. The focus of this programme will be to establish an entity with a small staff component, but will focus on organising specific parts of the livestock and crop value chain that will have most impact in terms of numbers of people and area of land covered. Collaboration with wildlife and tourism support initiatives will be sought to ensure economies of scale. The main idea is to enable the regenerative process to be farmer driven but with industry enabling support that helps farmers make the transition from current practices to regenerative practices. CROP PRODUCTION FOCUSThe crop focus will include supporting a national regenerative strategy to crop production as the principles for livestock production are similar to those for crop production. The focus in year one will be to upscale conservation agriculture practices that have been tried and tested over the last 15 years in Namibia. On farm trials using ripper furrowing, manure and intercropping have shown mahangu yields to double in the first year and to reach 4 to 5 tons per ha after several years of practice. These practices have also showed increased resilience for farmers in dryer years. The ripper furrowing practices will also be adapted over time to include the inclusion of regenerative crop (with livestock) practices, such as mixed species intercropping and the application of foliar fertilisers. This will involve digital technical support and other support to farmers throughout the country but with a focus on the northern communal lands. It will involve organising the mahangu, bean and chilli value chains. This will include making available low interest loans for tractor purchase and assisting the tractor owner to acquire clients that require ripper furrowing as well as link the tractor owner and farmer to other inputs that are needed. Markets will be secured with stakeholders for key crops on behalf of farmers. Over time a transition to regenerative farming will be facilitated to reduce the dependency on inorganic fertilisers and fossil fuel. LIVESTOCK FOCUSThe livestock focus will initially be on title deed and communal areas where management is under the control of one or a few individuals. Soils in dry climates of the world require well managed ruminants in order to regenerate. Here-in lies the potential of the livestock sector to increase production, profitability and resilience whilst improving the ecosystem services. Tried and tested methods have been developed that apply the principles of sound management and this initiative will work closely with innovative farmers and support organisations to refine these methods for Namibian conditions. Digital and other support services will be jointly developed to livestock farmers that enable these farmers to transition from current practices to regenerative practices. WhatsApp groups will continue to be used for farmers to support one another and visit regenerative farmers to learn from their experience. Structured Banks loans will be worked with and international funding mobilised to enable lower interest loans to enable farmers to transition from current to regenerative practices. The certification of regenerative and organic production (together with the Namibia Organic Association) will also be pursued with partners such as Meatco with the intention of securing first preferred markets and later hopefully premium markets for these sought after products. During 2021 the NNFU and key stakeholders will also focus on solutions to enable communal farmers to implement regenerative practices. At present almost half of Namibia’s agricultural land (30 million ha) and some of our most productive land is communal and without enabling mechanisms in place these areas will continue to degrade and the people will be excluded from increasing their profitability and prevented from accessing potentially lucrative regenerative livestock markets.These programs will liaise with other stakeholders and aim to develop joint and consistent messages for farmers. Both the crop and livestock programs will develop a national platform supported by digital apps and other digital solutions including an interactive Geographic Information System (GIS) support approach. COMMITMENTIn 2021 the three unions have re-affirmed their commitment to this process and are following up with support, collaboration and securing funding sources to enable this collaborative approach to be developed. Given the good rainfall season so far this season – this is a good season to change to regenerative practices. We encourage farmers not to wait for all the planned support to be offered before shifting to regenerative practices - increasing your sustainable stocking rate, whilst maintaining animal performance and fertility will make you more profitable and more resilient farmers. In the interim, help is available through WhatsApp groups and consultants are available to provide assistance for farmers wishing to transition as soon as possible from their current practices. We will be preparing a series of publications that will provide more details on each of these aspects and how to go about them. Farmers also need a clear vision, good decision making assistance and sound financial planning and other tools to be successful. The different approaches developed to date that increase the sustainable stocking rate over time all involve destocking and restocking in relation to the amount of forage produced in a given year. Apart from this destocking and restocking, these various approaches vary radically in their application in terms of recovery period, animal impact applied and management intensity and risk and are covered in the Revised Strategy mentioned above. Some approaches (eg Split Ranch or better known as the Riaan Dames Approach) supports intensive grazing (eating most of the plant often to the ground) combined with selective grazing (giving animals the choice of what to eat and when) and this ensures good animal performance, and the animals are kept at moderate animal density (animals are not bunched and herds not combined). This all takes place in the Split Ranch Approach for an entire grazing season on half the farm but in the next growing season these camps will receive a full growing season to allow recovery to take place (the plants in these camps are not utilised at all) to ensure germination and establishment of new plants takes place. Other approaches such as the Mara Approach utilise rotational grazing at low density and allow two season recovery before being re-grazed. Other approaches are more management intensive and involve higher animal density (animal herds are combined), but allowing selective utilisation and good animal performance (animals are allowed to take only one bite from the top of the plant before moving all animals out of the camp), which allows short recovery periods (because most of the plant is still photosynthesising) and this encourages high quality vegetative production (whist promoting tillering) and delayed seeding to keep the plant in a vigorous, high quality state for as long as possible (Ian Mitchell Innes Approach). Other management intensive approaches promote intensive grazing (most of the plant is eaten) and enable less plant selection by keeping animals at high density (herds are combined and kept in the camp for longer and therefore animals must eat what they come across). These approaches have longer recovery periods because the plants are grazed severely and animal performance losses must be mitigated (examples are Holistic Management grazing and ultra-high density grazing). Other regenerative farmers are difficult to classify as an approach (eg Hendrik Botha) but their sustainable stocking rates and resilience have increased impressively over time and their wealth of knowledge, dedication and experience enables them know when to move animals and when to de-stock, how much to bush thin etc. We have much to learn from all these people and approaches as well other approaches. We need to engage with successful title deed and communal farmers who through trial and error are creating success in these dry climates. All approaches must balance animal performance with regeneration of the soils. Some approaches can utilise existing infrastructure (Spit Ranch and Mara Approaches) whilst other approaches will require additional infrastructure, some are well suited to weekend farmers (Split Ranch and Mara) and others require intensive management. Some are well suited to the title deed areas whereas as other are suited to both the communal and title deed setting (Planned Grazing and Combined Herding and the Split Ranch Approaches). ENABLING ENVIRONMENT The challenge in the communal and title deed areas is to develop the enabling environment and support required by farmers that will work for them under their conditions. Farmers and farmer groups need to be at the centre of this change and will need the support of the industry to help them transition from current to regenerative practices. All farmers need to measure their success over time. The best measure of success is the trend on the farm in terms of kg meat/food produced per year, per ha as well as the profit generated per ha (how much money did you make). Successful livestock production is a combination of increasing your sustainable stocking rate (your land can hold more animals over time), whilst ensuring good animal performance (animals are fat) and good fertility (good conception, birth and weaning rates) and then reducing the cost of production per animal as far as possible (which includes selecting well adapted breeds of livestock). Market price is another key factor to consider but most farmers will be price takers. Clearly losses of livestock to predators, theft and poisonous plants must also be reduced and your choice of rangeland management approach can affect this.KASSIE ASBHow to become involvedFarmers need to act fast, to take advantage of this good growing season and crop and livestock farmers that are interested in making the transition to regenerative and/or organic are requested to contact the Farmers Unions Program Coordinator Colin Nott by phone or WhatsApp on 081 241 8778. Entities that are interested in being a part of this movement or funding this movement, are also requested to contact him. If you believe your practices are regenerative – please contact the editorial team of Die Boer, as we would like to share your learning and success.

Regenerating Namibia’s soils

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