Charmaine Boois

The World Food Programme (WFP), Lithon project consultants, Hardap prison officials and inmates gathered on Thursday morning outside the Hardap correctional facility to watch the first vegetable seeds being planted to launch the cropping season.

According to Adriaan Grobler, the founder and CEO of Lithon, “this is the first time in the history of the world that the private sector, governmental institutions and the World Food Programme have united to build a project like this.”

According to Grobler, the 6.5 hectares of land
will produce and supply seeds for butternuts, watermelons, and pumpkins for school programmes and the Hardap Correctional Facility.

Since they received the investments in the middle of December last year, they have been working on this project.

Impact for Africa committed N$200 000 in the pilot project. The Namibian prison institution offered to use its bulldozers and inmates to complete the task.

Around N$800 000 will go towards operating expenses like fertiliser and convict salaries, while the remaining N$900 000 will be spent on equipment like pipelines.

The WFP’s regional director for the southern regions, Menghestab Haile, who attended the event, said that Namibia is one of the nations with the best agricultural potential and natural resources.

“I promise to ensure that the seeds you are planting here today and the relationship you are all forming are known in other nations,” Haile said.