Windhoek
The once promising Tulongeni community garden project in Henties Bay, which was expected to significantly uplift the coastal town by providing employment and food security, has fallen flat on its face.
The project had the blessing of the founding president Dr Sam Nujoma who until 2009 had helped out during his holidays in Henties Bay.
However, the project is currently in a shambles with unkept parcels of land overgrown with weeds, broken pipes and fences, while some community members have allegedly started helping themselves to the idle, but still functional infrastructure, such as wooden poles and water tanks. The mushroom house has also been vandalised and windows are broken.
Project members, mainly women from disadvantaged backgrounds, started producing mushrooms in 2003 after being trained by the University of Namibia’s Sam Nujoma Marine and Coastal Resources Research Centre in Henties Bay.
Although trade started off well, after nine years the project came to a halt when it failed to generate adequate income for members and to sustain itself financially. A concerned resident of Henties Bay last week said the project has been badly vandalised. He added that equipment on site was being stolen. The resident, who wished to remain anonymous, also alleged things started falling apart since the National Youth Service (NYS) took over the project.
“When the Founding Father Nujoma came to visit the project this year, they (NYS) didn’t want to take him to the site. They gave him wrong information that everything is ‘okay’. If the Founding Father hears the project is not working he will be in shock, because the project took much of his time,” he said.
The National Youth Council (NYC) executive chairperson, Mandela Kapere, admitted that Nujoma gave his blessing to the NYS “to intervene”, but said they have to sort out all the logistics in terms of management, accountability and reporting before taking over the abandoned project.
“We are negotiating a memorandum of understanding (MoU). We are in the final stages of agreeing on the MoU. They want us to take over because of the success of our own garden in Henties. So on the basis of the successful one at our NYS centre, they want us to take over the project,” Kapere said.
The facilty was constructed mainly to produce oyster mushrooms and further pave the way for the commercialisation of mushroom farming at the town. It was further expected to expand to the nearby towns of Arandis, Swakopmund and Usakos.
Records at the Namibia Agronomic Board show that during between 2011 and 2012, 369.91 tonnes of mushrooms were produced locally.
This increased to 451.51 tonnes during the 2012/2013 financial year.
Between 2011 and 2012 some 221 tonnes of mushrooms were imported, while import of mushrooms declined to 147.97 tonnes between 2012 and 2013.