Staff Reporter
WINDHOEK – There is a new Chief Executive Officer at Namibia Agronomic Board (NAB), in the name of Dr Fidelis Nyambe Mwazi. Mwazi replaced Christof Brock who has been at the helm of the institution since March 2001. Brock goes into retirement after reaching the age of 65. Mwazi’s appointment is with effect this week and is for the period of five years.
“Dr Mwazi is no stranger to the agronomic and horticulture industries, he is a strong and visionary leader, highly capable of taking the industry to greater heights, therefore the Board is overtly confident that he will contribute exceptionally to the efficient running of the NAB,” said Michael Iyambo, NAB board’s chairperson.
Dr Mwazi, who is a professional scientist in crop science and sustainable agriculture, has over 18 years of vast practical work experience in the academic as well as the agronomic and horticulture industry environments. He obtained his PhD degree in Agriculture (Crop Science) in 2017 with the University of Namibia (UNAM). He graduated with a MSc. Degree in Geo-information Science and Earth Observation (Sustainable Agriculture) from the International Institute for Geo-information Science and Earth Observation, the ITC University, Netherlands, in 2006.
The NAB regulates the horticulture industry through the market share promotion scheme, which is implemented by Agro Marketing and Trading Agency.
Prior to his new appointment, Mwazi worked as a senior manager for Standards and Trade at Agro-Marketing and Trade Agency (AMTA) from February 2015 to June 2018. AMTA is mandated to implement statutory rules and regulations of the Agronomic Industry Act, Act 20 of 1992, by producers and traders involved in production and trading of the agronomic and horticultural products countrywide. Thus, he implemented various compliance programmes for agronomy and horticulture market share promotion, food safety and crop specific marketing standards, inspections of farms and facilities for compliances to Good Agriculture Practices (GAP) and Hazardous Analytical Critical Control Point (HACCP), border control and inland inspectorate as well as total quality management (TQM) aspects.
He also worked as a National Horticulture Manager at the Namibia Agronomic Board from May 2013 to January 2015, responsible for implementing the Horticulture Market Share Promotion for controlled crops.