POVERTY: SOUTHERN AFRICA: Floods leave Angolan returnees stranded

JOHANNESBURG, 6 January 2012 (IRIN) -

 Photo: Tomas de Mul/IRIN
The Zambezi is prone to flooding annually
Several thousand Angolan returnees from the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are stranded by floods in northeastern Angola. They are among the first casualties of what promises to be a very wet rainy season in parts of southern Africa.
“At least 50,000 people - 24,000 of them returnees - in 10 villages in Uige Province [northeastern Angola near border with DRC] have been affected by the flooding, rains and hailstorms in the past four months,” said Antonio Maiandi, head of the Evangelical Reformed Church of Angola, which has been trying to help those affected. The rainy season here tends to be longer than elsewhere in Angola.
“It is still pouring hard. At least 1,142 houses have been destroyed by the rains. Each family with shelter is now hosting other families,” said Maiandi, adding that the returnees, who had sought refuge from the civil war in Angola which ended in 2002, were putting enormous pressure on locals, and organizations such as his.
“The local population who are mostly farmers have been severely affected. Their cassava [staple food in Angola] and groundnut crops have been destroyed, so there is not enough food to go round.”
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) restarted formal repatriation of Angolans in November 2011 after logistical and other problems forced the process to stop in 2007. DRC is home to some 80,000 Angolans refugees, according to UNHCR.
The new return initiative comes after a UNHCR survey in 2010 found that 43,000 wanted to return home, and following a tripartite agreement between Angola, DRC and UNHCR (signed in June 2011), around 20,000 people signed up for help to return. The agreement came about after years of tense relations between the two countries: Angolan and Congolese nationals have been expelled from the two countries regularly.
Each family with shelter is now hosting other families
“The local population is extremely poor and unable to support the returnees,” and “people are still coming in every day,” said Maiandi.
UNHCR in Angola told IRIN they took a break in December 2011 and would resume formal repatriation on 17 January, but did not have an update on the number of people who had already arrived.
According to aid workers, increasing instability in the DRC following the recent disputed elections could be prompting more people to leave.
Maiandi said the returnees had not received adequate support from the authorities and church organizations had limited resources.
Meteorologists for the Southern African Development Community (SADC) have predicted normal to above normal rains for most of the region from January to March 2012 largely because of the continuing effects of the 2011 La Niña event. Thousands of people in the region were displaced and scores killed in early 2011 as a result of heavy rains and flooding associated with La Niña.

Zimbabwe
As the rainy season begins here, aid workers and disaster prevention teams are closely monitoring water levels in the all-important Zambezi river, the continent's fourth largest.
The authorities have issued a flood alert after being forced to release water from the swollen Kariba Dam on the Zambezi earlier than usual in the rainy season.
The Zambezi River Authority (ZRA) which usually opens the spillway gates of Lake Kariba in the last two weeks of January was forced to open one of the gates on 3 January. It has advised people living downstream to evacuate their homes.

Zambia
Zambia is in for a mixed season. Dominicano Mulenga, national coordinator of Zambia's Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit, said a plan had been drawn up to help 368,953 people likely to be affected by rain and dry spells. While northwestern and western parts of the country had seen heavy rain, southern, eastern and parts of central Zambia were likely to receive little or no rain, he said.
The water level in the Zambezi was higher than at the same time in 2011, he added. “We have had three seasons of heavy rainfall and the ground is saturated with water, making it more prone to flooding.”

Namibia
Namibians, currently experiencing a heat wave, are eager for rain, said Guido van Langehove, chief of the Namibia Hydrological Services. Southern African Development Community (SADC) meteorologists have forecast normal to above normal rains for Namibia over the next three months. “It was the same forecast last year and we recorded three times the normal rain,” van Langehove pointed out.
The Caprivi Region, Namibia’s poorest area, is prone to annual flooding.
Japhet Itenge, director of Disaster Risk Management in the Office of the Prime Minister, said they were prepositioning essential commodities and relief tools as part of their contingency plans.

Lesotho
Lesotho has not received adequate rainfall in the past few months, a spokesman for the country’s meteorological services told IRIN. “SADC has forecast heavy rains for Lesotho in the coming weeks. We are worried it can cause early frost and destroy crops that have already been planted,” he said.
Lesotho and Namibia have food insecurity levels greater than their five-year averages due to the severe flooding experienced during the last growing season, according to FEWSNET.

Mozambique
The Mozambican authorities have begun to release water from the Cahora Bassa Dam on the Zambezi. People living mainly along the lower Zambezi basin and in Buzi, Save, and Pungue basins, including Beira city, are on alert.
Sofala Province in central Mozambique is currently distributing items such as bicycles, stretchers, masks, gloves, megaphones and boats, according to the Mozambique Red Cross; and members of seven local disaster risk management committees established in Beira City are cleaning the drainage system.
The National Institute of Disaster Management (INGC) is monitoring the rivers Montepuez, Licungo, Mutamba, Pungué, Buzi, Save, and Maputo, said FEWSNET. In the Zambezi and Limpopo river basins, FEWSNET warned of a near-average-to-high probability of flooding.
João Bobotela, CARE’s emergency response coordinator in Mozambique, said INGC and local authorities had been running flood simulation exercises since November 2011 to prepare communities for sudden evacuations.

Botswana
Arid Botswana has not received good rains in the past few months. “We are expecting average rains which might help crops,” said a spokesman for the Botswana Meteorological Services.

Malawi
More rains have been forecast for southern Malawi, where land adjacent to the River Shire, one of the most food-insecure parts of the country, is prone to flooding. Parts of the region, which has seen an outbreak of foot and mouth disease and a hike in food prices, are in crisis mode, warned FEWSNET.

South Africa
Much-needed rain has fallen in South Africa’s major maize-producing northern Free State area in the past few weeks. The government and USAID’s Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWSNET) say the country has adequate supplies, but global maize stocks are low, putting considerable upward price pressure on South African white maize.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportID=94598

MALNUTRITION: 1.3 billion tons of food wasted -- and how to correct waste

19 May 2011 (IRIN) -
A recent study by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimated global food loss and wastage at 1.3 billion tonnes a year, which it calls a “major squandering of resources”.

The amount of food wasted is shared almost equally between industrialized and developing countries. But while developing country losses are largely the result of pests, diseases, poor storage and inadequate transport for agricultural produce, in richer countries, perfectly edible food is rejected by retailers or thrown away as household waste.
IRIN considered these issues from two extremes: London and Namibia.
About 20km from the Angolan border in semi-arid northern Namibia, Paulus Amutenya, a small-scale vegetable farmer, has managed to more than double his output with drip irrigation and soil conservation techniques over the past four years. But growing is only part of the battle. Mounds of rotting butternuts and onions lie in his yard.
Amutenya was involved with a UN Development Programme (UNDP) pilot project aimed at helping communities adapt to climate change.
While Amutenya was better off than before, he still lost thousands of dollars worth of vegetables every year because he did not have cold-storage facilities and access to markets to sell his surplus.
When 2011 began it seemed no different. "I even tried the local supermarket at Outape [the nearest town, about 45km away], but they prefer bringing their vegetables in from their regular suppliers in South Africa," he said.
Then he and 49 other small-scale farmers who had benefited from the project linked up with UNDP to pool their income to build a cold-storage facility and start a market.
The farmers raised almost US$19,000, with UNDP contributing more than $200,000.
"We hope to open the market next month [June]," he said. They also intend to supply neighbouring communities across the border in Angola.

Storage questions
British farmers take for granted the pesticides and improved seeds of which their Namibian counterparts can only dream. They have dryers to stop grain going mouldy, and temperature-controlled granaries to store it. They not only have cold storage, but refrigerated trucks for milk and other perishable produce. Losses at farm level are low.
More than 75 percent of British food is sold by just four big supermarket chains, which can dictate prices and produce. Some waste is for cosmetic reasons: fruit and vegetables are thrown away because they are the wrong size, too crooked or knobbly or not the right colour.
Meanwhile, more basic issues such as lack of storage and access to any market at all account for a large portion of food losses in developing countries, the FAO report says.
Developing countries lose about 630 million tonnes of food every year - 30 percent in the field, said Shivaji Pandey, director of FAO's plant production and protection division.
Andreas Shimbolweni, manager of the UNDP project in Namibia, said reducing these losses "has to be built in governments’ strategies; small farmers cannot do it by themselves".
Many developing countries have to contend with high temperatures and humidity, which increase vulnerability to disease and spoilage. Also, in developed countries almost all seeds available to farmers are resistant to diseases and temperature swings, which is rarely the case in developing countries, says Pandey.
Practical Action is one of many NGOs looking for solutions in countries where electricity and fridges are beyond the reach of most. Neil Noble of its technical information service says it has developed two kinds of coolers, which are being tested in Sudan and Nepal.
First, a clay urn with two chambers, one with water to keep the produce stored in the inner chamber cool. This was introduced at the household level in Sudan to help families store their vegetables and fruit for longer periods of time.
The other cooler is constructed on the ground with clay bricks using the same principle. "You can store bigger quantities in these containers, including staple grains," said Noble.

Room for imperfections
In Britain, farmers who can afford to, break away from the tyranny of the supermarkets. At a recent farmers’ market in north London, Gary Cox’s stall included bunches of wiggly spring onions and some highly irregular parsnips, and were finding ready buyers.
The FAO report sees such direct sales as one way forward, since it says that although supermarkets seem convinced that customers will not buy food with the “wrong” appearance, studies show the public is in fact less fussy.
“We are very mindful of waste,” Cox told IRIN. He sells some produce direct to restaurants, and some is delivered to homes. Anything not sold at the Sunday market goes to a discount shop where it is sold off cheaply. “And if it still doesn’t sell,” says Cox, “it goes to make compost and is put back on the land. It’s still not wasted.”
There are signs that the big supermarkets are changing. One chain, Sainsbury’s, now has a “Basics” range of cheaper produce. The labelling is candid about its imperfections. There are blemished potatoes (“No lookers; beautiful mashed”) and odd-shaped carrots (“All sizes – great when it comes to the crunch”).
Even so, perfectly good produce is still being turned down. The warm spring brought one grower some particularly splendid cucumbers. “Too large,” said the supermarket chain that usually bought his salads. His cucumbers finally found a home at the “People’s Supermarket” in Bloomsbury, central London. Duty manager Tom Smith said the monster cucumbers were selling well. “And he lets us have the curly cucumbers you get in a second crop. The big supermarkets won’t touch them, but we find they are really popular.”
Vegetables and fruit with high sugar and moisture content are more susceptible to rotting and that accounts for most of the spoilage in developing countries, FAO’s Pandey told IRIN.
In terms of reducing wastage, Smith said, the real breakthrough had been the company’s decision to open an in-store kitchen to use up produce that would otherwise go unsold. The cooked foods section is one of its most profitable and only about 2 percent of fresh produce is thrown away.
Smith also sells fresh produce loose rather than pre-packed. Customers can buy just what they need, and there is no “sell-by” date to make them throw away food prematurely.
Both are points taken up in the FAO report, which also criticizes supermarkets for offering larger packets, or “buy one, get one free” promotions, encouraging customers to buy more than they need, rather than simply reducing prices.
The real food wasters in the UK are the customers rather than the shopkeepers – 8.3 million tons of food are thrown away each year by British households, against 6.5 million tons lost in the supply chain, according to Waste Reduction Action Plan research.
Sian is a Londoner with three children younger than six. “If the children don’t eat what is put in front of them I tell them it’s a waste, and every so often I try to explain that there are people in the world who don’t have enough. But even the oldest is only five and thinks everywhere in the world is like this. They just can’t imagine a situation where there isn’t enough food.”
Ultimately, as the FAO report says, “The most important reason for food waste at the consumption level in rich countries is that people simply can afford to waste food.”
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=92753

MALNUTRITION: Namibia needs to control the high rate of malnutrition

CHARLIE TJATINDI May 9 2011

Namibia needs to control the high rate of malnutrition amongst its population, Prime Minister Nahas Angula, has said.
Mr Angula said malnutrition was directly responsible for the death of at least 6,000 children annually.
In a brief to Cabinet colleagues at its last sitting, he said research results also showed that Namibia had almost twice the normal percentage of moderately stunted children and three times that of severe ones.
“Namibian children and women also suffer from ‘hidden hunger’, a deficiency of important micro-nutrients which are required in small quantities, but are essential for the body’s daily biochemical functions. These include iron, folic acid, iodine and Vitamin A,” Mr Angula pointed out.
The malnutrition report on Namibia states that the three most significant contributors to infant and child malnutrition in Namibia were inappropriate infant and child feeding practices, especially a lack of exclusive breastfeeding, poor hygiene, sanitation and caring practices, leading to illness and poor nutrition, as well as the health status of mothers.

Hygiene promotion
The same report indicated that 19 per cent of Namibia’s total population was undernourished (2005 estimate).
Namibia was now investigating the feasibility of bio-fortification - a selective breeding of crop cultivators and varieties that have been found to naturally store higher levels of micronutrients such as orange maize, orange sweet potatoes, yellow cassava or iron in the case of beans, sorghum and millet.
Other measures include food distribution to highly vulnerable households with chronically ill patients and schools in food insecure areas, and community awareness campaigns on nutrition and food security programmes.

Cabinet also approved that in addition to immunisation undertaken by the Ministry of Health and Social Services, nationwide hygiene promotion and de-worming for all children aged one and above should be conducted twice in a year.
Namibia is a lower middle-income country with perennial food deficits, recurring droughts, high rates of malnutrition and the sixth-highest prevalence of HIV/Aids in the world.
http://www.africareview.com/News/Malnutrition+worries+Namibia/-/979180/1158906/-/uriq1d/-/

POVERTY: Namibia: Thousands displaced by floods

6 April 2011 (IRIN)

 Photo: OCHA: The red areas show regions affected by flooding in northern Namibia

Water levels in flood-hit northern Namibia "are significantly higher than they were in 2009, when flooding affected an estimated 350,000 people," the UN Office of the Resident Coordinator said in a situation report released on 5 April 2011.
As in 2009, the government has declared a state of emergency, and seven regions - Kunene, Caprivi, Kavango, Ohangwena, Omusati, Oshikoto and Oshana - have been listed as flood-affected.
Unconfirmed statistics from the Namibian Red Cross suggest 37,600 people have been displaced by the floodwater.
"Flood conditions in northern Namibia are expected to be exacerbated by another flood wave coming from Angola, impacting mainly the western part of Ohangwena and Oshana," the report said.
More rain has been forecast in the already waterlogged areas in the next few days, "which would worsen the current flood situation further," the report said.

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=92394

POVERTY: NAMIBIA: Floods cause an emergency

 Photo: Jaspreet Kindra/IRIN; Flooding in January 2010

JOHANNESBURG, 1 April 2011 (IRIN) - Namibia has declared a state of emergency in response to widescale flooding in the north that has claimed 62 lives since January 2011.
"The most severe flooding is occurring in the regions of Oshana, Ohangwena, Omusati and Oshikoto, which form the Cuvelai Basin," said a situation report by the Office of the UN Resident Coordinator on 30 March 2011.
The Cuvelai Basin, in northern Namibia, is one of the country's most densely populated regions, as well as one of its poorest.
"However, surrounding areas are also being affected, specifically Caprivi and Kavango. An estimated 62 people have died. In Oshakati town, in Oshana region, an estimated 5,000 people are already being housed in relocation sites, and this number is increasing," the report noted.
"Following weeks of heavy rain, water levels in northern Namibia are already 30cm to 40cm higher than they were in 2009, when a flood emergency was also declared."
The Namibia Meteorological Service has forecast more rain for the central and northern parts of the country next week, and the situation is expected to be compounded by "a new flood wave" approaching the Cuvelai Basin, beginning on 1 April.
The government has set aside about US$4.4 million for its response to the floods, but allocation of the funds has not yet been decided.
The International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) has sourced US$328,000 from its Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) to support the local Red Cross in providing "assistance to 2,000 families in the northern regions of Caprivi, Kavango, Ohangwena, Omusati and Oshana, as well as in the southern region of Karas, which was affected by flooding earlier in the season," the report said.
Preliminary assessments showed that the priority requirements were food, shelter, transport and education. Over 100,000 learners in 324 schools were affected by flooding, of which 163 were closed, and 22 health clinics were either submerged or completely surrounded by water.

Southern Africa
In the past few months many countries in the region have been afflicted by flooding. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) noted in its Southern Africa flood and cyclone update on 30 March 2011 that according to media reports, the Cunene provincial government, in southern Angola, was airlifting medical supplies to areas cut off by floodwater.
"The government has also started building dykes and hydraulic systems around Ondjiva [capital of Cunene Province] to ensure that the flooding that has affected the city for three successive rainfall seasons does not recur," the OCHA update said.
Flooding in Angola has caused the deaths of 113 people in 2011, displaced about 35,000 people and destroyed nearly 5,000 homes, OCHA said.
Recent floods in South Africa killed 91 people, and 34 died in Madagascar, mainly in the flooding caused by Cyclone Bingiza, which struck the Indian Ocean island on 14 February 2011.
In contrast, parts of Zimbabwe have suffered an unseasonal dry spell that is expected to have a severe impact on the food insecure country's main harvest, which starts in April.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportID=92343

POVERTY: Basic Income Grant (BIG) effectively alleviates poverty

04 Mar 2011

WINDHOEK – An unconditional basic income grant has been recommended by a recent study on inequalities in Southern Africa as an immediate intervention that would free millions from poverty and its debilitating effects.
Other recommendations made in the study for countries to reduce inequalities include alternative approaches to development and a need for developmental states in the region.
Experiences with social grants in some countries in the Southern African region, namely, Namibia, Malawi and South Africa, demonstrate that “unconditional rights-based grants not only reduce poverty significantly, but also pave the way for sustainable economic activities and or meaningful grassroots empowerment,” according to the publication “Tearing Us Apart: Inequalities in Southern Africa” edited by Herbert Jauch and Deprose Muchena.
The book documents five countries, namely, Malawi, Angola, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe and their prevailing levels of poverty and inequalities in the region, with the aim to identify areas of intervention to reduce poverty and inequality and also to provide pro-poor alternatives needed to provide lasting solutions to the problem.
Southern Africa is rich in mineral resources yet poor in human development and remains one of the poorest regions in the world. Although most countries have registered considerable economic growth over the years and are said to be among the world’s fastest growing economies, statistics of poverty and inequalities do not correspond to these positive developments.
According to statistics, about 45 percent of the SADC population lives on N$7 a day, 40 percent of the labour force is unemployed or underemployed, the distribution of resources is skewed and most countries have a high Gini Co-efficient of more than 0.5 because of the income inequalities.
As a short-term measure, the study says that states should use their national budgets to deploy resources to ‘liberate the majority from the shackles of poverty and inequality’ by implementing a Basic Income Grant.
Three years ago Namibia, through the Basic Income Grant Coalition, implemented an N$100 grant that was last year reduced to N$80 for about 930 residents of Otjivero village.
The project has not only resulted in a reduction in poverty and malnutrition, but has also resulted in various economic activities and a reduction in crime.
Malawi introduced a Social Cash Transfer Scheme, which started with 11 000 households, to improve school enrolment, reduce child labour and improve access to health services.
This intervention resulted in increased enrolment and a reduction in school absenteeism, improved nutrition and food security and a reduction in child illnesses.
Although concerns have been raised over affordability, viability and fears the grants would create dependency, the study says “given resources available in the region, such grants are not only promising but also viable and affordable”.
Sentiments supporting cash transfers were echoed at a public lecture in Windhoek last week on ‘Cash Transfers to fight poverty: Experiences from Brazil,’ where participants felt that issues of poverty were treated with a laissez faire attitude.
“If you discover that I am hungry today, give me food today and don’t go and discuss it in Parliament,” said Immanuel Kadhikwa, who attended the lecture while Meriam Mavulu said a grant, little as it might, gives people who do not have an income the hope to go on in life.
While Angola has huge oil and gas reserves, diamonds and other minerals, two thirds of the 16 million people live in abject poverty. It is the largest supplier of crude oil to China and the seventh largest oil supplier to the USA. Despite this and the fast economic growth in the country, 68 percent of the population is poor and 28 percent extremely poor.
Angola remains a country with low human development. It ranked 162 out of 177 countries in 2008.
Malawi, among the least developed countries, is ranked 164 on the Human Development Index (HDI) of 2007/8.
It is said to be one of the fastest growing economies in Africa yet more than half of the population are poor, while one fifth are extremely poor.
Namibia has continued its legacy of inequality, which it inherited at Independence.
Some 20 percent of the population has access to wealth and opportunities.
South Africa, which is the envy of many countries in Africa, still has 53 percent of its population living in poverty.
The list of examples of inequalities and poverty in the region is endless and according to the publication, “The results of post colonial governments’ attempts to address inequality have been mixed and at most a collection of failed experiments.”
Until now, unemployment in the region has continued to rise, and the gap between the rich and the poor is growing, thus increasing a sense of injustice and deprivation for many Southern Africans.
“While oil, copper, gold, diamonds, chrome, gas, bauxite, fisheries and platinum are in plentiful supply in the region, unemployment is increasing, poverty is deepening and inequality between and within countries is widening,” said Open Society Initiative in Southern Africa (OSISA) Deputy Director, Deprose Muchena, in a presentation, ‘Curse of the Three Cousins: The Triple Burden of poverty, inequality and unemployment and search for alternatives in Southern Africa’.
The presentation was made during a conference on “Social Justice and the Responsibility of the State – The triple burden of poverty, inequality and unemployment”, last week.
Muchena said Southern Africa inherited underdevelopment, which is presently perpetuated by external dependency, and distributive, technical and allocative inefficiencies.
In addition, natural resources extraction has fueled the problem by contributing to increasing inequality and poverty.
“As extractive industry (EI) gains prominence as a basis of economic development, so do the negative indicators of human development. EI takes place in the context of enclave development where the extractive zones become enclaves, and become the centre of government and private sector attention and not the basis of diversification,” he said.
Alternative approaches to development would include taking an active role in developing and implementing policies that redress the unacceptable levels of inequality in the region.
Although development is linked to economics, development must include human rights, community rights and the right to regional and self-determination as well as dealing with issues of equity and fairness in the distribution of resources at all levels.
The human rights approach to development also entails provision of social services such as water, health, energy and education, which cannot be guaranteed for all if left to market forces alone.
“Social services are not matters to be privatized as they are part of basic human rights requiring states to have the responsibility to secure them for all their people,” says the publication.
It adds that “development must lead to a better life for the majority and eradicate poverty”, which can only be achieved if development is based on promotion and protection of human rights, economic rights and blue rights (political and civil rights).
By becoming developmental states, Southern African countries can change their focus from “being a provider of favourable investment conditions for foreign investors, towards a regulator and an economic player that can effect redistribution and facilitate the achievement of sustainable equality”.
Other measures that Southern Africa states should consider in the fight against poverty and inequality include mainstreaming gender, and involvement of mass movements, whose participation in democracy would lead to greater accountability regarding the use of state funds allocated to the fight against poverty.
If the current levels of inequality in Southern Africa, which are the highest in the world, are left unattended, they would continue to tear apart communities and societies in the region.

http://www.newera.com.na/article.php?articleid=37445

POVERTY: NAMIBIA: When we have food, we are rich

 Photo: Jaspreet Kindra/IRIN
Evard Haukongo with a millet plant in the test patch where he used conservation agriculture techniques

JOHANNESBURG, 7 February 2011 (IRIN) -
In the deep north of Southern Africa’s driest country, Namibia, about 10km from the Angolan border, live an elderly farming couple and their 10 adopted children, who watch the sky every day for rain. If the heavens do not open in another three weeks, they will not have enough food this year.
Pearl millet, the staple grain in northern Namibia and known as mahangu in the local language, is a drought-tolerant grain grown in semi-arid and arid areas.
But Evard Haukongo, 67, wants just the right amount of rain. In the past four years, he and other farmers in the Omsati region have struggled with floods. In the years before 2007, dry spells claimed their precious millet and many of their livestock.
“Farming is very hard now, it is a tough job - they say the climate is changing,” he said, wiping the sweat off his forehead as he pulled weeds from the sandy soil of his five-hectare smallholding.
It is early in the morning but you can almost bake a loaf of bread in the heat. The tender green millet plants, only 60cm high, growing out of the dry ground do not really stand a chance.
“Me and my wife are the last of the farmers in our family - this will die with us,” he said. Their own five children have all grown up and “found their own ways”, as his wife, Mirjam, put it, and settled in towns.
“Maybe if they [the adopted children] want to farm they will divide our land into 10 pieces and grow vegetables,” he said, laughing.
He looked on fondly as five of his adopted children set off for school. Despite not being related by blood, the children are close and share everything - from wild berries picked after school to every slice of bread.
Evard and Mirjam converse in English because they trained as teachers.
The goal was to return to their village to farm their land, and teach in the neighbouring school.
“We are farmers by birth - it is what we are - but we also loved to teach. We were teachers for some hours every morning [for two decades] and then farmers for the rest of the day,” said Mirjam, digging her spade into the ground. “If we did not plant we did not eat.”
The money they earned as teachers was not enough to feed and clothe their five children. Now, retired and living on a monthly pension of about US$137, they barely have enough to cover the needs of 10 children.
All the children - from the eldest, who is 20 years old, to the youngest, just three years old - spend most of their day tending the millet plants. “When we have mahangu we feel we are rich, even if we do not have money,” Evard said.
The subsistence farmers gave a home to the 10 children, passed on by dying or poor parents who were either friends or distant relatives.
They also opened their home to me for a day and a night.



 Photo: Jaspreet Kindra/IRIN
Children in the Haukongo household share their food

“Maybe it was HIV [that claimed some of the parents], I am not sure, but there are many children in our village [Ohendjeno]. Every house has many children - you do not leave them like that [orphaned].”
Namibia has an HIV prevalence rate of about 13 percent among adults aged 15 to 49 years, according to 2009 figures from UNAIDS.
The children either want to be nurses, teachers or doctors. Rachel, their eldest daughter, who works part-time as a shop assistant, loves farming. “When you see the mahangu on the field it is very beautiful,”
she said.
Things might be looking up for small-scale farmers. The Namibian government, with the help of a pilot climate change adaptation project run by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), is providing improved millet seeds that fruit earlier, and teaching water conservation farming techniques. Evard’s family is among 3,200 households who have been targeted.
He has tested the techniques on a small patch of his land, where the millet started fruiting within a month. “You can see the difference - the millet was planted in the furrows, so the roots have better access to the moisture and can survive in the heat.”
He was also given fertilizer, which he used to enrich the barren soil in the test patch. “I have no money to buy fertilizer for all the plants - but any little help is good,” he commented
Andreas Shimbolweni, manager of the UNDP project said the government provided subsidized fertilizer and seeds, but "The rains are extremely variable in this part of the world and the climate change trends predict they will continue to become even more variable."
Weather is king, said Kaunapawa Shapenga, the government’s agricultural extension officer for the region, on a visit to the Haukongo smallholding. “We never know what to expect - we have tried so many things… but we are giving out [seeds for] faster maturing varieties of millet, so at least the farmer does manage to grow something.”
Farmers have also experimented with cultivating rice in the some of the flood plains, or oshanas, found in the midst of the arid land, which remain flush with water for most of the year. “You cannot grow anything else in these plains but rice,” Shapenga said.
However, many of these farmers faced opposition from communities because the oshanas were communal land used for grazing, so “very few continue to grow rice.”
Evard and Mirjam said a solution would have to be found, if not for them then for their children, and perhaps rice was an option. “We will need to barricade the oshanas, protect them from animals, convince communities,” Shapenga suggested.
“But we cannot live without mahangu,” Mirjam said. Later that night, after a dinner of mahangu and a chicken killed in this reporter's honour, Evard pointed to a group of stars, the position of which tells them when to plant. “The stars are midway in the sky, which means half the rainy season is over and we just have two more months.”
Everyone looks up at the night sky in silence. The next morning an excited Evard wakes me up at the crack of dawn. “I saw a dark line in the sky above Angola, which means the rains will be here soon - maybe another three weeks." He took a deep breath. "Maybe we will be okay.”
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=91843