The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Land Reform is in the process of reviewing and strengthening policy and legislative reforms to reduce food imports and scaling up production through green scheme projects.

Minister Inge Zaamwani-Kamwi revealed this in the National Assembly while responding to questions by NDP Leader Martin Lukato on food imports.

Lukato asked the minister why Namibia is still importing fresh produce while the country has adequate land but yet has a high rate of unemployment, particularly among the youth.

Inge Zaamwani-Kamwi informed the house that the ministry will, in the current financial year, undertake a review of policies and legislative frameworks, including the Namibia Agricultural Policy of 2015, the Green Scheme Policy and the Agronomic Industry Act Regulations.

The reforms are aimed at enhancing food production and productivity, strengthening local market access and value chains and creating sustainable employment opportunities.

Reforms will also encourage private sector partnership and agro-processing and improve climate-resilient farming strategies.

Namibia continues to import some vegetables, primarily due to seasonal supply gaps, high production input costs and limited irrigation infrastructure.

Potatoes are among the major fresh produce that Namibia imports, which the minister says requires a production input cost of N$250,000 per hectare, and Namibia remains reliant on seed potatoes mostly from South Africa.

She, however, said local vegetable production is growing steadily as Namibian farmers currently supply 56 percent of domestic vegetable demand.

"The market share promotion scheme introduced in 2004 and currently requiring importers to source at least 47 percent of their produce locally has been instrumental in the growth. The goal is to increase the share to 60 percent or even more by the year 2030. At its inception in 2004, Namibia's total production capacity for fruits and vegetables stood at a mere 4 percent. Through the special control product scheme, imports of 21 vegetables, including tomatoes, onions, cabbage and butternuts, are banned during times of sufficient local supply."

In respect to green schemes and arable land, the minister also agreed with Lukato that the country has under utilised arable land and such needs to be changed.

Through the green scheme programme, the ministry is expanding irrigated agriculture along the country's perennial rivers, dams and boreholes.

The government will also continue to engage traditional leaders to access land and develop it for communal irrigation schemes in line with regional agronomic ecological conditions.

"As part of tackling youth unemployment, the ministry is aiming to mainstream youth employment in the implementation of programmes for the development of the agriculture sector. This mainstreaming includes, amongst others, the provision of technical training that mainly targets youth and women. The ministry is also working with other ministries to ensure that government procurement of food prioritises produce from local farmers, particularly those supported by government or regional green schemes."

On balancing trade and food sovereignty, as a member of the World Trade Organisation, Namibia is required to comply with international trade rules.

The Agronomic Industry Act enables the country to impose targeted import restrictions from time to time, which the country has used through the market share scheme promotion and the grain marketing scheme to protect and grow domestic production.

Among such measures is grain imports that are banned during local harvesting season, this policy has helped to stabilise income for farmers and has enabled market access.