Lylie Joel 

NKURENKURU – The Kavango West Regional Council and Namibia Industrial Development Agency (Nida) met on Thursday to discuss a new strategy to transform the Kavango Cattle Ranch at Mangetti Farm into a profitable venture. 

The ranch is in the Tondoro constituency. 

The initiative seeks to improve cattle health and market quality, revamp farm infrastructure, involve local youth and integrate the farm’s elephant population into a trophy-hunting scheme.

Kavango West Regional Council chairperson Joseph Sikongo expressed satisfaction with Nida’s presented report.

He said the goal of operating the farm as a business to generate income for both the traditional authority and regional council, is similar to how the Mangetti National Park operates.

“We are looking at a model like the one for Mangetti National Park, where we get a small portion of funds. That is what the current President is talking about – that people should benefit from their resources,” he stated.

Despite a call from the chairperson of the National Council to the environment ministry to relocate over 200 elephants reportedly “terrorising” the farm, Sikongo said they are hoping for the ministry’s cooperation rather than relocation.

“The elephants are residents of the farm. They can be part and parcel of our animals, like cattle. If trophy-hunters come here, there are funds attached. Nida can benefit from the trophy-hunting. We want the environment ministry to come on board,” he said.

Nida CEO Richwell Lukonga highlighted the success of the new management’s strategies.

“I’m quite happy to indicate that in the last 12 months, we did not lose any cattle because of sickness and so on. We were also able to improve our market terms and the quality of our cattle,” he said. -Nampa