The annual Member meeting of the APA took place on 09 April 2015 at the agronomy irrigation farm Sikondo, approximately 12km west of Rundu. Regardless of the vast distance there was an excellent turnout of APA members.
Various matters were included in the agenda, but one of the highlights was the discussion about drought assistance and a decision was taken to submit a proposal to the Government requesting subsidies for agronomy producers. The APA budget for the 2016/2017 period makes provision, within organised structures, for the services of experts to provide agronomy producers with information and expert services.
The member meeting ran concurrent with the Master Agronomist Day and three outstanding speakers made presentations at this event. Dr Andre Nel, a senior researcher at the Agricultural Research Council spoke about conservation agriculture in South Africa. Dr Elbe Hugo, also a researcher at the Agricultural Research Council, presented effective weed control through conservation agriculture. The third speaker, Derek Mathews, a well-known and successful agronomist from Sannieshof in South Africa, talked about the transition to sustainable agronomy through conservation agriculture. In the afternoon, the Master Agronomist: Irrigation 2015, Rustie Kleynhans, received a floating trophy from the Namibian Agronomic Board and the participants took part in a tour of the farm.
The APA Member meeting and Master Agronomist Day were made possible by the main sponsors Total Agri and Namib Mills as well as the other sponsors, Agra, Agri-gro, Kaap-Agri and Aqualand.