ONGWEDIVA – Northern farmers say government officials should avoid discrimination in their distribution of drought relief food.
The discrimination, farmers say, is the criteria that prohibits households that have a brick structure (house) and people earning more than N$3 500 from benefiting.
The Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) recently revealed that a drought relief storage warehouse at Uukwangula in the Oshana region is fully-packed with food parcels, and ready for distribution to the rightful beneficiaries.
According to OPM spokesperson Maxmus Halwoodi, the government increased the size of the maize meal bag from 12.5 kg to 20 kg to be given per household, together with four pilchard-tinned fish or soya mince and 750 ml of cooking oil.
“We fully understand that most households are affected by drought. But with the available food, we are only able to assist needy people who are registered,” Halwoodi said in October.
He added that OPM, together with the Namibian Vulnerability Assessment Committee (NAMVAC), held a week-long meeting in Otjiwarongo over a week ago to update the food security classification for the entire country.
The outcome projections will assist the government in determining the estimated number of food-insecure people who will require immediate humanitarian assistance following the poor rainfall and harvest experienced in the whole country.
Okatana constituency councillor in the Oshana region, Edmund Ishuwa, said the warehouse is fully-packed, but the food does not belong to one region, but to all four northern regions.
He stated that almost every house in his area is affected by drought, and they deserve to receive food.
“Subsistence farmers did not get anything from their crop field this year; the situation is worse,’’ he stressed.
Ishuwa said he does not support the reason that houses with buildings will not benefit.
He added that some buildings are left by family members who went to start their family, or died.
Aram Martin of the Oshakati West constituency said the drought situation is the same in all the northern regions.
“Farmers did not get enough, if not nothing, from their fields due to this year’s insufficient rainfall. But the government has started with the consultations on the drought programme,’’ he noted.
Martin further indicated that they have started with the distribution, but only those who registered will benefit from the food relief programme.
Left out
Farmer Pombili Nashidengo from Okatana in the Oshana region complained that everyone deserves to receive drought relief food since the minimal rainfall received this year did not discriminate against the employed and unemployed.
“We are all affected by the drought. How is the government unable to feed less than a million people? It is unacceptable,” he said.
Eachoing similar sentiments was Taimi Shigwedha from Oshikolongondjo, who said the impact of climate change has affected almost 90% of Namibians.
“Therefore, every household deserves a food parcel. The building criteria are not acceptable; no one should be left out,’’ she stressed.