Urban agriculture is growing in Swakopmund as the municipality and some learning institutions continue to empower residents through the allocation of more land.

Urban agriculture is a particular focus area in the Swakopmund Municipality's strategic plan.

The Municipality and stakeholders, including the Government of Japan, initiated the Build Back Better Urban Agriculture Project at Swakopmund.

Since 2020, the project has recorded bumper harvests and expanded access to housing for residents who are from disadvantaged backgrounds.

"Council has approved 90 plots at the new sewerage plant. Part of those plots will be allocated to people who have previously applied, and then the rest will be advertised. We also have 11 plots of 10 hectares each, just along our river. Currently, we are building a reservoir for that and also a pipeline to those so that we can advertise them as soon as the water supply is done," said Chief Executive Officer of the Swakopmund Municipality, Archie Benjamin.

At the COSDEF Centre, an agricultural training programme was added to the curriculum two years ago to motivate the community to grow vegetables.

"We have had a lot of interest in the last two years; we have had about 250 trainees that came through here, which is fantastic, and you can see it through the poor areas of Swakopmund, DRC, and Mondesa in particular; the people are starting to grow their own vegetables now, which is the intention of our project. In Swakopmund, we obviously have a lot of issues with our soil, so we teach them how to make their own compost, we teach them about crop rotation, planting seedlings, how to harvest, pest disease management, and all the other things you need to know about a garden," explained Matt Napier, the manager of the agricultural project at COSDEF.

One of the interns at the COSDEF Agricultural Project, Buruxa Amutse, highlighted the importance of urban agriculture.

"Namibia as a country, if you look at it, imports most of our products from South Africa, so it would be one of the ways we could actually tackle importation as well as create employment among us as Namibians and also just a basic skill so that we are able to sustain ourselves, and I guess it's also a skill that should be put back into schools since it has been removed."

Horticultural producer AvaGro, located at the Swakopmund River Plots, has revised its whole syllabus for agriculture and will be the first accredited training provider for hydroponics in Namibia.