NDONGA LINENA – The Ndonga Linena irrigation project, which last year blamed government for four unproductive years, planted 88 hectares of maize on the commercial fields and 90 hectares on the small-scale farmers’ side. 

The irrigation project, which was under the management of Agribusdev, has since 2019 not produced anything.

“We started planting towards the end of December to the beginning of January. With the small-scale farmers, we also started planting a bit late because we were waiting for fertilisers from government, which they later supplied. We made a plan to get some fertilisers a bit earlier through Grootfontein crop care, and we started planting,’’ said farm manager Janno Rentel, who briefed Kavango East governor Bonifatius Wakudumo during his visit to the project last week.

Rentel indicated that they are still going to plant for the small-scale farmers, where there are about 70 hectares left to plant. “The rain is keeping us out of the field currently, but as soon as we get a break, we will,’’ he noted.

Last year, government put out a tender to repair the project’s water pumpstation, which hindered production for some years as it was out of order.  

“The contractor is more than halfway through with repairs. Everything is running now. We don’t have the problem of the pump station anymore, and now we must produce. The challenge is just that we are still waiting for some inputs from the ministry,’’ Rentel added.

Although the farm implements are not in good condition, the manager said they are managing, as access to water was the major challenge which has been sorted. The water pump, among other challenges, led to the project not to plant anything for the past four ploughing seasons.

“The maize uptake is not a problem when it comes to the market. Most of the millers will take it; and we have the silos if we need to keep it a bit longer,’’ he said. 

Due to the fact that they planted late, they can’t expect a big harvest. Ndonga Linena also has a very sandy climate, while their fertiliser programme is not for a bumper harvest this season. But they are expecting six to seven tonnes per hectare. 

“That is a good yield for us, as we planted late and a lot of rain is washing away our fertilisers a lot quicker. So, that will affect our yield. We are not at full capacity yet, but we are going there. We will now start sorting out phase two, but in winter, we will be able to plant phase two,’’ the manager
elucidated. 

He furthermore told the governor that the ministry of agriculture is supporting the project, although there are some delays.

The pumpstation, which is being fixed, is also being upgraded to assist the project to use less electricity. 

Ndonga Linena is a project with the most small-scale farmers attached to it, and they are on a six-hectare piece each.  “We are currently with 26 small-scale farmers out of 29 reserved small-scale plots. We have four medium-scale farmers’ plots that are not occupied yet, and they are 20 hectares each,’’ he continued.

Ndonga Linena is currently out on tender, and government will in the near future award it to a firm which will take over the State farm. It is one of 11 government green scheme irrigation projects, and is situated about 78km east of Rundu. The project has 32 permanent staff on the commercial side of the farm.

“I am just visiting government projects in the region to assess their activities,’’ said Wakudumo.