RUNDU – President Nangolo Mbumba said Namibia, with its vast land and resources, must become self-reliant in terms of food production.
Namibia imports nearly 97% of processed agricultural products, the 2023 World Bank report reveals.
“We live in a country that is facing drought. We have been trying our very best to produce our own food. The only thing we could mention is that we have green schemes. Why are the green schemes not producing the necessary food? This is despite budgetary allocations for equipment, seeds, water, power and so on,” questioned the Head of State.
Mbumba paid a visit to several green schemes in the Kavango East region on Thursday and Friday. The green schemes visited include Sikondo, Uvungu-vungu, Mashare Berries, Ndonga Linena and Shadikongoro.
He assessed food production at the Divundu Correctional Facility and Musese green scheme in Kavango West yesterday.
“We are here to make sure that our green schemes are truly producing food – not for one community or region, but for the whole country. Because the Vice President was here not too long ago, I thought I should also come and see for myself because no matter what they call you (titles), if they are hungry, they are hungry, and if they are hungry, they are unhappy people,” said the President.
He said he needed to see for himself if State-owned green schemes were progressing, or whether more needed to be done.
He appealed to traditional and regional leaders to work together towards food production.
Production cost
While touring the area, Mbumba engaged farm managers, and discussed various challenges affecting the projects.
These challenges that were highlighted are lack of equipment, procurement delays of seeds and fertilisers, as well as the high cost of power.
Uvhungu-vungu farm manager Floris Smith briefed the Head of State on the project’s challenges, which include the lack of silos to store grain.
“We must wait for other projects, Ndonga Linena or Sikondo green schemes, to first finish their harvests, then they can lend us their combine harvesters. Our crops remain on the field. We lose maize through theft. We lose moisture because the crops remain on the field. We wait for more than a month before harvesting,’’ he said.
Ndonga Linena farm manager Janno Rentel said they are putting everything in place to start production.
“At Ndonga Linena, we are moving in the direction of precision farming. That is the way forward because,with precision farming, we won’t waste any seeds or fertilisers. At the moment, we have the best water pump station of all the green schemes. Technology-wise also, it has control stations here at the farm. You can see anything, and measure the power usage of the pump station. We were a bit quiet for the past four years. We were busy getting things in place. This season, we are planting 680 hectares of maize,” he revealed.
Agriculture minister Calle Schlettwein shed light on the time the green scheme was not operational.
“Regarding the four unproductive years… it was that period of time where we had a bit by bit with very few funds… replaced old equipment, and bring new infrastructure into place. We didn’t have enough to do it in one big step. As from last year, we saw the first improvement in production So funding of agriculture at our projects is an issue that we need to discuss, but with the president’s support, we are making some progress,’’ he shared.
He revealed that the government has spent nearly N$60 million.
It took over the farm in 2020 to replace equipment, as well as fix the pump station and pivots.
Mbumba was accompanied by Kavango East governor Bonifatius Wakudumo, minister in the presidency Christine //Hoebes and presidential spokesperson Alfredo Hengari.
-jmuyamba@nepc.com.na