By Deon Schlechter
WINDHOEK – A review of reports and evaluations, findings and recommendations of what has been done so far dating back as far as the early nineties must be carried out for everyone to re-visit the drawing table of crop farming in the northern communal areas, says Richard Shikongo.
Shikongo said this last week when he attended a two-day NCAP lead farmer training at Ongwediva Rural Development Centre, where he made it clear that communal farmers want to know why some of the good donor-funded projects that have been or are implemented in the country are not being continued and mainstreamed into relevant ministries or other government agencies.
Such questions need to be answered by all stakeholders, says Shikongo.
Shikongo is the USAID-funded Namibia Conservation Agriculture Project (NCAP) National Coordinator and CLUSA Country Representative. “Crop farmers in the northern communal land areas hunger for extension services and information.” This is the view of Shikongo, after listening to questions by a group of 39 farmers from Omusati and Ohangwena regions.
He noted that crop farmers need more support in terms of extension advisory services, field day events, meetings and training to strengthen their capacity in general field management that can lead to increased production for food security and surplus for the market.
Many farmers alluded to the fact they have become used to seeing extension staff only on occasions when the extension technicians sell subsidized seed and fertilizer, or during outbreaks of pests, and less so for training or general advisory visits.
Shikongo noted it was encouraging to learn from the farmers that not only are proponents and facilitators of programmes such as NCAP advocating for early ripping-furrowing land preparation before the onset of the rains, but farmers equally believe that there could be various benefits of doing it and they are prepared to try it out.
“The challenges faced by farmers are lack of access to advisory extension services and training, only small quantities of certified seed being available, and lack of timely land preparation ripping-furrowing services. This can be greatly attributed to the ongoing information deficiency, poor planning and lack of advisory extension services to farmers. It is equally noteworthy that there are limited platforms for farmers to act and speak on a collective basis and with one voice such as farmers’ cooperatives and producers’ associations. Seen in this light farmers currently do not have bargaining power in terms of negotiations or when it comes to demand for better services from responsible entities charged with the function to render them those services,” he stated.
Shikongo stated that in order for smallholders and small-scale farmers’ voices to be heard, they need to join the Namibia National Farmers Union (NNFU) in order to advocate for their interest and demands of services from government.
Shikongo says unions that are strongly supported by membership can introduce programmes and collaborate with other support groups to empower farmers through skills training and capacity building intervention and they can even introduce on-going farmer support programmes, which might even cover extension advisory services gaps.