Windhoek
More than 70 metric tons of rice from the Kalimbeza National Rice Project near Katima Mulilo in the Zambezi Region was dispatched into the local commercial market last Friday.
The supply of Kalimbeza rice into the local market came after the launch of the first-ever strategic plan for AGRIBUSDEV, its logo and the official launch of commercialisation of Namibia’s home-grown rice.
Officially launching the project, Minister of Agriculture, Water and Forestry John Mutorwa said this volume should hopefully double or even, at most, triple by next year. “This is indeed a true meaning of growth at home. What remains to be completed is basically and simply to claim the rightful market space for our rice,” stated Mutorwa.
Mutorwa said the dispatching of rice into the local market goes with the assurance to the consumers and the general public at large that this rice has been tested by the Namibian Standards Institution (NSI) that the product contains no pesticides or any other harmful chemical residue and is thus fit for human consumption.
“Hence, nutritional and other essential information are affixed to the product. From the laboratory results, it is significant to point out that: no pesticides or any other harmful chemical residue were detected. This rice is very safe. Let us therefore take pride in Kalimbeza rice by making it part of our daily shopping basket. At present, the rice could be bought at the National Fresh Produce hubs in Ongwediva and Rundu and at the Kalimbeza National Rice Project. AGRIBUSDEV, working together with AMTA, are sealing deals with many outlets/retailer shops.
He said Namibia’s agenda for development, including the agenda for National Food Security, are guided among others by the following significant national strategic plans: Vision 2030, NDP4, MAWF Strategic Plan, 2012/13 to 2016/17, Swapo Party Manifesto and those national plans and policies. The Strategic Plan by its nature provides a structural framework through which the aspiration, vision and mission of the shareholders are articulated, which eventually must be practically implemented. Those aspirations, vision and mission are to be realised by the crafting and infusion of deliberate and responsive projects, activities and actions, from the side of the mandated entities or individuals.
The Strategic Plan, therefore, forms an integral part of the contract between the shareholder and the entity/body/individual, mandated to execute business affairs on behalf of the shareholder, AGRIBUSDEV agency. The desired result in this case is to ensure there is national food security. Collectively, the logo symbolises crop production under irrigation.
“In 2013, we produced sufficient volumes of maize grains, such that: as government, we did not import any of the grains that were distributed to the affected needy beneficiaries, under the Drought Relief Programme in that same year. The grains were all sourced from the GRN’s National Strategic Food Reserves (silos) of which the GRN green scheme irrigation projects, supplied more than 95 percent of the said grain stock.
During 2015, which is also a year of drought, our annual average national maize production, Country wide, unfortunately dropped significantly, from approximately 60 000 metric tons, to roughly 30 000 metric tons. I would like to highlight that: of that amount, approximately 18 000 metric tons of the 30 000 metric tons, is coming from the GRN green scheme projects. I am equally happy to inform the nation, through the media that our new-kid-on-the-block the Sikondo GRN Green Scheme Irrigation Project, inaugurated on March 4 last year, scooped the Agronomic Producer award for 2015 and also the Major Supplier categories of Vegetables to the Fresh Produce Hubs in 2014,” he noted.
“This is the economic opportunity of our lifetime. We must collectively come back to the drawing board, as a nation, in order to ensure that the required resources are secured for this Programme. If 94 per cent of the rural households identify agriculture, as one of the main source of their livelihood, then certainly, the solution to their socio-economic plight lies in intervention that would transform their livelihood through intervention like the green scheme programme. We need to accelerate our collective resolve to increase the current hectares under irrigation from approximately the current 11 000 hectares to much more hectares, by 2030,” he concluded.