EENHANA – Established some six years ago by the National Youth Service (NYS), the Omauni Mahangu Project, located some 80km from Okongo in the Ohangwena Region, has become one of the biggest producers of mahangu in the north, despite the current drought experienced in many parts of the country.
The 58 hectares Omauni agricultural project has created a number of job opportunities and is imparting skills to volunteering youths in the eastern part of the Ohangwena Region. “Despite the fact that our country is experiencing drought, as you can see, we are still harvesting our mahangu. This year alone, our project produced some 850 bags of mahangu and we are ready to provide food security for our region without any irrigation scheme,” said farm supervisor, Gabriel Athanasius. He told New Era that they have 36 volunteers, but the project is experiencing a shortage of labourers, because many youths in the region are unwilling to volunteer. “Since we are committed to producing mahangu for the region in this drought year and season, we are appealing to our regional council and traditional authorities to give us more land, because we have to feed the nation with enough mahangu. Our field needs to be extended so that we can produce more than 850 bags.”
“This is encouraging and Namibia needs youths like you who are doing wonders for Namibia food security. There is no way we can allow this agricultural project to collapse and stop producing our main staple food, which is mahangu. We hope to mobilize our youths to come and work here,” said the councillor of the Ondobe constituency, Mandume Pohamba when he visited the project.
The NYS agricultural project has since become so productive that the leaders of the Oukwanyama Traditional Authority and the regional councillors in the Ohangwena Region have proposed to the agricultural ministry that the project be provided with support from both the government and the community, including the co-optation of business partners. “This is one of the best projects in our region. Our youths should be willing to volunteer, but we seem to be finding it hard. How do we create jobs for the region, it is through these kinds of… projects. Training will be provided for free all we need is to motivate our youths to come along and work in these projects. This project is acting on employment creation for our youths and also contributing to the noble idea of self-reliance as advocated by the government under the green scheme programmes,” said Pohamba.
Josiah Lukas a 25-year-old volunteer at the farm explained that not many youths his age, are willing to come and work at the farm. Sometimes nearby villagers come to help with farm work during the rainy seasons, he said. “We have some dedicated old people and their family members who sometimes come to volunteer during the land preparations. We are very much happy that at least as youths under the NYS, we are playing our role in ensuring food security for the region and the nation,” said Lukas who joined the NYS in 2011 and chose agriculture as his area of study.