By Wezi Tjaronda WINDHOEK Fifty farmers have applied to obtain an aborticide which promises to escalate the process of combating bush encroachment. The Meat Board of Namibia sourced and tested the aborticide called MBN-TB-500-SC and is going to make available trial samples at cost to livestock producers who are registered with the board. The trials have proved more effective than the chemicals on the market at present, according to a consultant who sourced the aborticide for the Meat Board, Helmut von Maltzahn. He told New Era yesterday that MBN-TB-500-SC is an alternative product that costs 25 percent less and is much more effective than what is available on the market now. Aborticides are applied to the root system of the invader bush and kills it after two to three rainy seasons. The Meat Board sourced the aborticide from China and did the trials in the central and northern areas of Namibia. “It is very effective,” he said. The first consignment is already in the country and the board is awaiting the second to make it available to more farmers. The aim behind sourcing the chemical from China is to make the chemical more available to more farmers due to the expensive nature of combating bush encroachment, and farmers were looking for a cheaper source. “Once it’s cheaper to combat the bush, more farmers will want to go into it,” he added. The farmers who already applied to get the chemical are restricted to a 50-liter quantity per livestock producer, which is enough for between 100 and 200 ha. However, the amount depends on the number and the density of the bush. With some 26 million hectares being infested with invader bush in the country, supposing the chemical could be used to kill 1 million hectares of bush every year, it would take more than 20 years to combat the 26 million. Although the size of the land that is infested is enormous, Von Maltzahn said if the chemical were obtained at more competitive prices it would enable the country to address the problem on a larger sca1e. Due to bush encroachment, land productivity has been lost to an extent that the carrying capacity of the land has gone down from 1 livestock unit per 10 hectares of land to 1 LSU per 20 to 30 hectares. In the entire bush affected area, says a book on Bush Encroachment in Namibia, only Okombahe in the Erongo Region is regarded as low density. Areas that fall in the high-density areas are Okakarara, Okondjatu, Otavi, Otjinene, Otjituuo, Otjiwarongo, Outjo, Tsumeb and Windhoek. Invader bush can also be controlled by biological ways such as the use of browsers, beetles, fire, bulldozing and felling. Chemical treatment is recommended when the woody component is so dense that other methods are too expensive, when the majority of trees have grown beyond the reach of browsing animals and when also animal access is restricted. Invader bush can also be used for electricity generation, briquettes, charcoal and many other uses. Among the projects, the National Planning Commission’s Rural Poverty Reduction Programme has been provisionally awarded funds and the programme is negotiating project proposals is bush utilization for electri-city generation.