Farmers’ Kraal with Erastus Ngaruka – Understanding rangeland productivity, degradation

Rangeland is defined as an area of land with natural forage materials that are utilised by livestock and wild animals. Its productivity depends on rainfall and utilisation.

Rangeland plants require favourable environmental conditions and protection to ensure their establishment, distribution, and resilience in agroecosystems or on livestock farming lands.

In particular, the most important attributes to consider about rangeland productivity in grazing areas are grass vigour, density, species composition and abundance or richness, amongst others. These attributes indicate the resilience of grass growth after dormancy and grazing, the grass yield per unit area, and the dominance of different grass species. These are indicators of grazing values across the different rangelands, and they are influenced by climatic conditions and utilisation, varying across spatial and temporal scales. The rangeland is the primary and most affordable source of food for livestock. Moreover, humans derive very useful resources from it. These include medicinal plants, edible plant products, and household materials such as timber, poles, droppers, and thatching grass. Therefore, rangeland resources support all forms of life. To this end, there is competition for rangeland resources between animals and humans. This has placed many rangelands under pressure to the extent that their productive potential is compromised, thus degrading them. In Namibia, rangeland degradation is conspicuous at different scales across varying landscapes, taking the form of deforestation, desertification, soil erosion, and bush encroachment.