Windhoek
Government has launched a comprehensive five-point plan to be implemented immediately in a bid to bring relief to farmers in the northern communal areas (NCAs) who are suffering severely in the absence of marketing strategies, foodstuff outlets and feedlots.
The new strategic plan aims to change the face of feeding, slaughtering and marketing of livestock in the NCAs and maximise the sourcing of foodstuffs from these areas by government catering institutions like schools, hospitals and prisons.
As part of the plan, agriculture minister John Mutorwa instructed the Directorate of Veterinary Services to transfer its capital project for the construction of an urgently needed meat processing facility at Bukalo in the Zambezi Region to the Meat Board for urgent implementation.
“Construction of this facility must commence during the current or next financial year as a matter of urgent necessity,” he noted.
Mutorwa also stressed the urgency of the implementation of a project to create and establish quarantine feedlots in the NCAs at Oshivelo, Kavango Cattle Ranch, Omutambo Maowe, Okongo and Kopano to create a market for slaughter-ready animals and to improve their grading from grade C to A or B.
Veterinary services were also instructed not to issue import permits for meat from outside Namibia “wily-nilly or liberally but rather ensure that all possible local meat markets in the NCAs are exploited and that their meat and meat products will receive preference over imported meat”, the minister said.
“Serious attention should be given to the production of animal fodder in addition to food for human consumption in the NCAs.”
“This should be happening at, but not exclusively, some of the government’s envisaged green scheme projects at the Zone National Green Scheme in Mpungu Constituency in Kavango West Region. AgriBusdev, the food marketing arm of MAWF (Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry) should take the active leadership role in this regard,” he noted.
Mutorwa reiterated that the veterinary cordon fence (‘red line’) continues to divide the country into a World Animal Health Organisation (OIE) disease-free southern zone, from which most commercial livestock farming originates, and the northern subsistence farming sector.
“The presence of transboundary animal diseases such as foot-and-mouth disease and lung sickness is largely responsible for the lack of participation of the NCAs in the agricultural economy of the country. Government has already implemented a policy to eradicate these diseases in order for improved market access for livestock and livestock products from the NCAs. Once that has been established, we will look for local, national sub-regional, continental and global markets for the products from the NCAs,” he stressed, while urging all role players to work together to realise this dream for NCA producers.
Mutorwa’s directive was the result of an urgent meeting of the Animal Health Consultative Forum on February 10 by all stakeholders under the auspices of the Meat Board.