Grandpa, this one’s for you.

I don’t know much about farming, but I am always a little interested in it because of the family farm! Not that my kids believe me when I say there are farms in America, but still.

Namibia’s currently facing a huge, horrible drought. Last year, there was pretty much no rain in my village and everywhere in the country experienced significantly less rainfall than normal.

Over our August holiday, I got the chance to see some of the north of Namibia, where things are generally greener and farming is a much bigger deal. They can also actually raise cattle because there’s enough water and food. But all I heard from anyone in the north was how dry it is right now, and how worried everyone is about having enough food and livestock to make it through the year. If the rainy season is not good this year, it will be a big problem. Luckily, at least in towns and in some villages, the government is providing drought relief in the form of supplementary food—but it isn’t enough for most families, and we don’t know how long it will continue.

When I was coming home, I got a lift with a farmer from the middle part of the country. He had a few more details for me. He said that last year he had about 150 head of cattle. Cattle are better to raise if you can afford it, because they are harder to steal and big enough that jackals cannot pick them off of the herd in the night. Well, this farmer had about 10mm of rain in 2012 instead of the ~200 he needs to keep his cattle on his land. He sold a bunch, so he is down to 76 with an additional 36 calves. He is waiting for the calves to make 200kg so he can sell them too, because there just isn’t enough food and water.

The problem with this was that farmers all over Namibia had to sell livestock early this year, so prices were horrible and most of them lost money. Now they are trying to make it up in a poor economy (not that I know much about economics, but the dollar keeps gaining on the Nam dollar) and in a climate that is not helping them out!

In a country where farming, and subsistence farming at that, is a primary source of livelihood for much of the population, things like droughts hit really hard. And since everybody here has accepted climate change and knows it will continue to worsen, you have to wonder how they will manage to stay afloat?

sorry it's been so long since the last posts, guys! More to come soon about my recent holiday travels and our school here =)