page_title: Namibia
section_title: Agriculture
hierarchical_section_title: Namibia / Economy / Agriculture
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Schild der Farm Burgsdorf bei Maltahöhe in Namibia. English: Sign of the Burgsdorf-Farm near Maltahöhe, Namibia.
context_page_description: Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean; it shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. Although it does not border Zimbabwe, less than 200 metres of the Zambezi River separates the two countries. Namibia gained independence from South Africa on 21 March 1990, following the Namibian War of Independence. Its capital and largest city is Windhoek. Namibia is a member state of the United Nations, the Southern African Development Community, the African Union and the Commonwealth of Nations.
  The driest country in Sub-Saharan Africa, Namibia has been inhabited since early times by the San, Damara and Nama people. Around the 14th century, immigrating Bantu peoples arrived as part of the Bantu expansion. Since then, the Bantu groups, the largest being the Ovambo, have dominated the population of the country; since the late 19th century, they have constituted a majority.
context_section_description: About half of the population depends on agriculture (largely subsistence agriculture) for its livelihood, but Namibia must still import some of its food. Although per capita GDP is five times the per capita GDP of Africa's poorest countries, the majority of Namibia's people live in rural areas and have a subsistence way of life. Namibia has one of the highest rates of income inequality in the world, due in part to the fact that there is an urban economy and a more rural cashless economy. The inequality figures thus take into account people who do not actually rely on the formal economy for their survival. Although arable land accounts for only 1% of Namibia, nearly half of the population is employed in agriculture.
  About 4,000, mostly white, commercial farmers own almost half of Namibia's arable land. The governments of Germany and the United Kingdom will finance Namibia's land reform process, as Namibia plans to start expropriating land from white farmers to resettle landless black Namibians.
  Agreement has been reached on the privatisation of several more enterprises in coming years, with hopes that this will stimulate much needed foreign investment, but reinvestment of environmentally derived capital has hobbled Namibian per capita income. One of the fastest growing areas of economic development in Namibia is the growth of wildlife conservancies. These are particularly important to the rural, generally unemployed, population.
caption: Welcoming sign of the Burgsdorf farm in Hardap
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