22 November 2024, Rome: The FAO Director-General, QU Dongyu, met with The Honourable Calle Schlettwein, Minister for Agriculture, Water and Land Reform of the Republic of Namibia at FAO Headquarters in Rome.
The Director-General welcomed the Minister to FAO and recognized the close cooperation and collaboration between FAO and Namibia over the years. He congratulated Namibia for its huge strides in governance and infrastructure development.
The Minister thanked the Director-General for FAO’s leadership in agrifood systems transformation. He stated that Namibia was the largest exporter of beef in the continent, and informed that Namibia had also signed the same protocol for sheep and goal exports, while also growing its fisheries sector by expanding the scallop, shrimps and abalone farms.
The Minister further stated that the country aimed to diversify its agriculture by moving from rainfed agriculture through innovation. He further informed that Namibia was working towards improving its irrigation schemes to maximize high value fruits for better market access.
Minister Schlettwein informed that Namibia faces challenges of water management, soil degradation and land reform, stating that more needed to be done for better use and to optimize these commodities. He appreciated the work of the FAO country team and requested increased support from FAO in these areas. He further informed that 70 percent of Namibians relied on agriculture for their livelihood and expressed the need to strengthen the agriculture sector by improving farming beyond value chain, as this would improve livelihoods of small-scale farmers.
The Minister expressed concern at the drastic drought currently affecting the country with very low water reserves, and in this regard the Director-General referred to the importance of private sector involvement in investing in water management to improve water resources. Both discussed the pivotal role of alternate power resources to improve national power grids and water reservoirs.
The Director-General strongly encouraged the Minister to consider the FAO One Country One Priority Commodity (OCOP) Initiative to enhance food and nutrition security, to diversify the food basket and the cropping season, and to improve their agricultural productivity and outputs.
The pair agreed to continue collaborating on key priorities in support of the transformation of the country’s agrifood system.
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