Windhoek
The Namibia Conservation Agricultural Project (NCAP), in its current funding stage, came to an end on 31 July. However, it was agreed that NCAP is to continue and all partners are currently hard at work to ensure that the project is scaled up.
Tractor owners have already started ripping and a group of farmers from Omusati laat week ordered 11 rip furrow kits from Baufis Agricultural Services to fit onto their animal draft plough frames. Two farmers, last week have asked for letters of recommendation in order to seek Kongalend Lima Power loans for tractors and rippers.
NCAP has taken on a life of its own and now it must ensure to nurture it in the form of providing training, coordination on the ground and to ensure a private sector service system to the farmers. Kongalend has taken the initiative to form an NCAP Consortium comprising all the CA expertise gathered under NCAP.
“NCAP is our child. A child we must nurture and grow. When hearing from the farmers at this meeting, it is clear that Conservation Agriculture (CA) is here to stay. They have spoken of the good harvests achieved despite the drought conditions and the call for continued training is loud and clear. What we must now look at is the next phase of NCAP, and the encouragement to farmers to organise themselves into co-operatives that could access loans for tractors and rippers to provide much-needed and paid-for services to their communities. We must also look at seed multiplication, food processing and off-season uses for tractors to generate income. In other words, the future lies in farmer empowerment; for farmers to be able to generate sustainable income not only from marketing surplus yields, but also by being engaged in agri-service provision. What we must do is to open the doors to the huge opportunities in farming in the communal land areas,” concluded Jason Ndakunda, Councillor of Engela constituency, in the Ohangwena region, at a recent gathering of CA farmers in the north.