The impact of land distribution on food insecurity in Namibia: a case of Arovlei, Windhoek rural constituency

Abstract

This study aimed at exploring the impact of land distribution on food security at Arovlei, Windhoek Rural Constituency, in the Khomas region of Namibia. Specifically, this study sought to examine how land distribution affects food security in Arovlei constituency; apart from land, determine other factors which affect food security in Arovlei rural constituency, and recommend strategies of ensuring food security in Arovlei rural constituency. To achieve the above objectives, this study adopted a quantitative research design and the instrument for data collection used was a research questionnaire. A sample of 100 research participants were selected using simple random sampling. This study established that: The current policy of land distribution in Namibia greatly affects food security in Arovlei resettlement farm. For example, failure by the government to allocate enough agricultural land for farmers to do farming; failure by the government to speed up the process of land distribution in Namibia; unfair land distribution process which favors the rich at the expense of the poor; failure by the government to allocate land to people who need it; failure by the government to allocate land to people who can use land productively to produce food; allocation of land to politically connected people rather than to people who really need it; failure by the government to provide sufficient extension services such as roads, health centers, water and electricity supply, communication network to people in Arovlei to facilitate easy farming; failure by the government to provide necessary tools and facilities to ensure that farmers are in position to engage in agricultural production; failure by the government and traditional authorities to give people rights to own land; delay in allocating supplementary land to farmers who need more land; failure by the government to amend the current policy of the willing buyer-willing seller which adversely disadvantages the poor people when it comes land distribution; and slow legislation on land redistribution greatly affect food security in Namibia. Besides the poor land distribution policy in Namibia, food insecurity in Arovlei resettlement farm is caused by limited financial and technical support from the government which affects the capacity of Arovlei residents to produce sufficient food; iii poor farming skills by Arovlei farmers which affect agricultural production; use of poor farming agricultural tools and inputs like seeds by farmers in Arovlei; farmers in Arovlei are poorly trained on food production; limited access to modern agricultural tools and machinery which makes farmers to produce food in low quantities; land in which agriculture is done is not fertile enough to support robust production; failure by farmers to use irrigation and modern farming methods; and harsh climatic conditions which affect agricultural yields. This study recommends the government to change the current policy of wiling-buyer-willing seller policy in order to give preference to the government to purchase land and distribute to the poor; government should give property rights to the people who are resettled so that they own the land allocated to them by the traditional authorities; the government should identify the type of agriculture which a group of want to do and allocate them land based on their needs in order to help the government decide on the appropriate land to allocate to farmers based on farmers‟ needs; the government should allocate farmers enough land to enable farmers produce enough food for their nutritional needs and for commercial purposes; the government should expedite the process of and distribution by doing away with bureaucracy associated with land distribution process; the process of land distribution should be fair to all where land is not allocated based on the economic status or political connections of the citizens; and the government should provide sufficient extension services such as roads, health centers, water and electricity supply, communication network, to people in Arovlei to facilitate easy farming is contributes to food insecurity in Arovlei resettlement farm. Additionally, the government should provide training to farmers, provide farmers with low interest loans, provide farmers with high quality seeds, provide farmers with machinery, help farmers to process and store their output in order to ensure constant supply of food throughout the year.