A glimpse of small-scale organic vegetable growing in Namibia

From Windhoek, Namibia

Dear Friends,

By happenstance today, I met a passionate certified organic vegetable farmer/market gardener, Drew, who owns a small farm outside of Windhoek, Namibia's capital city. Namibia is situated in southwest Africa on the Atlantic coast and just north of South Africa. It was once annexed to South Africa, during the apartheid era, and before that was a colony of, variously, England and Germany. It achieved independence in 1990 and this weekend is celebrating its 20th anniversary as an independent (liberated) state.

There aren't many organic growers in Namibia, and organic produce is not yet well known. Yet the numbers of organic producers and the popularity of organically-grown foods are showing signs of growth. The current market is enough to sustain existing producers who sell their produce at slightly higher costs than conventionally grown produce whether grown locally or imported from South Africa.

Drew's clientele (he sells his produce at a market in the city which is open Saturday mornings) are generally older people or people suffering from long term chronic diseases, in particular, HIV/AIDS. Namibia has the fifth largest incidence of AIDS in the world. These people tend to be aware of and appreciate the higher nutritional value of organically-grown food. (In addition to anti-retorviral drugs (ARVs), people who suffer from AIDS benefit greatly from a diet of highly nutritious foods. Without these kinds of foods ARV's are only semi-affective.
 
Because this area of Namibia is semi-desert (most of the country is semi-desert or desert), Drew had to dig out "bays" for gardens and fill them with rich soil he makes himself. His soil making process is based on vermiculture. Because of the import laws here, he was not able to import worms (which you won't find in Namibia's dry sandy soils). So he collected red wrigglers from a river bed and started a nursery. He tried several nursery techniques before he found one that enabled him to achieve a high rate of worm reproduction. He knows how to make his worms feel "threatened" to cause them to reproduce at a much higher rate.

Drew is now flush with worms and is breeding them continually. They are added to winrows of compost material which, when fully composted, is deposited into the garden bays. The worms stay in the soil in the bays where there is moisture content, so once they are there in sufficient numbers, they remain forever through reproduction. 

 
The "juice" from the vermiculture trays is drained into a tank and used as a compost tea, and either added to the soil around certain vegetables that require extra nutrients or applied topically in spray form to ward off insect pests. Drew also adds beneficial micro organisms to his gardens to help control diseases and further enrich the soil. He orders them from South Africa.
 
The main ingredient in Drew's compost is -- animal offal -- which he gets in bulk from a local slaughterhouse. With the addition of worms, it takes about three months for the offal to break down completely and produce a lovely rich soil. The offal is a little high in salt but this leaches out of the soil in time. It may well contain other non-organic elements, but as we all know it's impossible to achieve a pure organic state and certification regimes make allowances for this.
 
Drew also belongs to a small group of about six small-scale farm families that support one another in various ways and share their experiences, similar it seems to what our LocalMotive group is aspiring to become.

 
Anyway, just a little glimpse of small-scale organic vegetable growing in Namibia.

Gary Kenny

Koliswa Farm

RR#1 Neustadt, Ontario