The Namibian minister of agriculture, John Mutorwa, has said that investment in agricultural research can address sustainable food production issues worldwide
Land and water constraints, underdeveloped rural infrastructure, access to agricultural inputs and weather disruptions were issues that could be addressed through agricultural research, added the minister.
Speaking at a workshop for the sustainable increase of food production in Africa, he said, "Sustainability should be grounded on scientific evidence for socio-economic development.
"After decades of economic plunder, uncontrolled exploitation of natural resources, Africa needs to promote sustainability in its development efforts.
"Slow increases in world food production and declining growth rate in yields of main crops have resulted in a situation that threatens world food security," he added.
Three southern African nations – Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe – attended the meet at Okahandja to embark on a capacity-based development of rangeland management and crop-livestock production.
One more objective of the meet was to finalise a funding bid to be submitted to Germany, to carry out comparative on-farm research in the three countries.
"The project is aimed at establishing scientific evidence and a triple bottom-line comparison of holistic management (HoMA)," the minister added.
