Agriculture: Future Scenarios for Southern Africa - Country Briefing - Namibia

This briefing shows that Namibia, a largely arid country, in the face of rising food prices has managed to control these through a conservative price agreement between producers and millers of grain crops and its potential designation as a net food-importing developing country by the WTO may provide it with policy space to increase national food production.

Key findings:

• Namibia has been mildly affected by the food price hikes largely because of the conservative pricing agreement between producers and millers which shield consumers from immediate price shocks.

• The government controls the import of staple food and horticultural products in order to increase food security and to exploit Namibia's agricultural production potential.

• The government of Namibia has implemented and continues to implement a set of measures to counteract the effects of rising food prices, droughts and floods which target subsistence farmers (1.5 million of the country's population of 2 million) to the exclusion of poor urban dwellers who are more vulnerable to food price increases.