By Obrein Simasiku
WINDHOEK – Agra-Marketing and Trade Agency intends to deploy trucks to assist farmers in transporting their produce to the markets. However, farmers would be invoiced for the transportation.
The agency is encouraging the farmers to combine and determine the volume of their produce, as this would dictate the capacity of the truck they would need.
“We [would] then invoice the farmers based on the type of truck used and the distance covered to collect the produce. The tariff per kilometre will vary depending on the capacity of the truck used,” the spokesperson for Agra-Marketing and Trade Agency (AMTA), Meke Uushona, said in a statement.
AMTA says it is the responsibility of the farmers to bring their produce to the hub. Farmers who do not have own trucks use commercial trucks, while green scheme projects have their own trucks. However, “in case we cannot reach the farmer for some reasons, we will refer the farmer to either the green scheme trucks (AGRIBUSDEV) or the commercial delivery trucks,” says Uushona.
AMTA says this is the reason it stepped in to assist farmers who may be having large volumes of fresh produce and have no means of transporting their produce to the markets though they are expected to transport their own fresh produce.
As a result, AMTA has developed a system to identify and determine which customers would need transport. This can be determined through the information farmers provide such as the location of farming area, the total area under production, distance to the market and whether the farmer has the capacity to transport the produce to the market.
Not only trucks will be used but pickup vehicles will also be integrated to assist, depending on the nature of the produce and the distance from the farm to the market, provided the vehicles have passed the health and safety requirements as provided for by the AMTA’s quality standards. However, farmers are expected to bring their produce closer to where the AMTA trucks pick up.
The truck capacities range from 10-ton, 15-ton, 20-ton and 34-ton, comprising refrigerated trucks meant to collect and store perishable produce as well as open trucks meant to transport produce less sensitive to heat or cold.
AMTA urges farmers, whose produce does not fill up a truck to combine with other farmers, as farmers will be invoiced and charged according to the distance and capacity of truck used.