Okavango Delta Management Plan - Ramsar Convention on Wetlands

2.4.8.2 Arable Farming
Arable farming is an important source of livelihood for communities in the ODRS (Scott
Wilson, 2001). There are two distinct arable farming practices in the ODRS. These are
molapo (flood recession) and dryland farming. The dryland farming system is practised
inland and is highly dependent on rainfall while molapo is carried out along river beds and
is dependent on flood waters.
The predominant crop in the molapo farming system in Ngamiland West is maize while
sorghum and millet is grown in the dryland. In Ngamiland East, maize is grown in the
western part while sorghum is predominant in the eastern part. Crop yields per hactare are
higher in the molapo system than in the dryland because of the fertile soils in the river
beds and flood plains and have high moisture content due to floods.
Dryland farming is common with the Hambukushu tribe while molapo farming is practiced
by the Bayei.
2.4.9 2.4.9 VEGETATION USE (HARVESTING)
According to the socio-economic survey of the Every River Has its People Project of 2001 in
20 villages within the <strong>Ramsar</strong> site, ten vegetation resources form the basis for rural
household livelihoods viz palm shoots for basket weaving, grass, reeds, water lilies,
assorted wild fruits, veld products, trees for woodcarving, trees for building and fencing,
trees for firewood and lastly edible papyrus shoots. These activities are reflected in Figure
2-14.
In terms of the wild fruits important tree species are Berchemia discolor (Motsentsela),
Strychnos cocculoides (Mogorogorwana), Ximenia spp (Moretologa), Diospyros mespiliformis
(Mokutshumo), Phoenix reclinata (Tsaro) and Garcinia livingstonei (Motsaudi).
58
No. of Villages
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Grass Carving
Trees
Reeds Basketry Veld
Prdts
Vegetation Resource
Lilies Poles Firewood Wild
Fruits
Papyrus
Figure 2-14: Vegetation resources use by village (Adapted from socio-ecological survey report,
Every River has Its People Project, 2001)
2.4.10 2.4.10 WASTE MANAGEMENT
The main generators of solid and liquid waste are households, tourism operations,
institutions and commercial enterprises. It is estimated that the solid waste generation rate
for the entire ODRS is 0.39kg/capita/day with the majority of it (72%) coming from
households. There are a variety of primary storage containers currently in use including
backyards pits, refuse bags, galvanised metal bins with lid, pole mounted bins and