WINDHOEK, June 6 (Xinhua) -- Namibia's cereal production in communal areas is expected to decrease by 80 percent, deputy Prime Minister Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah said Thursday.
She was speaking at an event where she was presenting the country's drought strategy where she was giving results of the recently concluded Food and Nutrition Security Monitoring Assessment.
"All crop producing regions are expecting a massive reduction in expected harvest. The assessment also showed that the whole country is expecting a harvest reduction of at least 53 percent compared to last season's harvest and over 42 percent compared to the 20-year average production," she said.
She said extreme weather patterns such as floods, extensive droughts and land degradation had placed Namibia in a precarious position.
"The crops that were cultivated failed and the grazing conditions are extremely poor. These conditions are similar in all the regions. It has been widely reported that the year 2019 is the driest year in 90 years. Windhoek measured the lowest rainfall since rain was recorded in 1891," she said.
