Deon Schlechter

WINDHOEK - The Dare to Care Fund shot up to N$4 million last week after a donation of N$385 000 by Old Mutual which means that 76 000 bags of fodder will be subsidised with N$50 per bag. A meeting was held last Friday where all retailers agreed about final rules for implementation. The target date for national implementation is next week Monday. 

The entire agricultural sector, including the Namibia Agricultural Union (NAU), the Namibia Emerging Commercial Farmers Union (NECFU) and the private sector have joined hands under the umbrella of the Dare to Care Fund which is administered by the Namibia Agricultural Union (NAU). The fund aims to subsidise drought-stricken farmers (communal, emerging commercial and commercial). It has been decided that the implementation of subsidies will start early in April whilst contributions are still canvassed from all sectors in the economy. 

The Dare to Care fundraising action is based on three pillars, namely a marketing action to collect funds until the end of March, complete transparency in the management of the fund where auditors have been appointed to do a full audit, and the implementation of the subsidy on feed for drought aid.

With regard to the third leg of the plan, the most important principle is that the fund will not give any donations, but will subsidise certain animal feed. The subsidies will be available for all farmers, including communal, emerging commercial and commercial in the entire country where approved retail feed suppliers are available.

Four production lines will be subsidised which include whole yellow maize, sheep fattening pellets, cattle fattening feed and lucerne pellets. Any feed supply company which is interested to be part of this action will have to make a contribution to the fund before their products qualify for subsidy. Any retail feed supplier which has registered the past six months at participating feed companies will qualify to provide subsidised animal feed lines if such retailers contribute financially to the Dare to Care Fund. The subsidy will be available to all farmers, whether communal, emerging commercial, or commercial, across the country where certified feed retail outlets are available.  The duration of this subsidy scheme is subject to the availability of funds to the Dare to Care drought programme. The subsidy will only apply to the following feed product lines:
Sheep fattening pellets, cattle fattening feed, lucerne and game pellets (game, cattle, sheep). 

A fixed subsidy of N$50/bag of animal feed will be applicable to all approved animal feed product lines. Each voucher will have a value of N$500, therefore each voucher will subsidize the acquisition of 10 bags of animal feed. The producer who wants to buy the animal feed should buy at least 10 bags of the subsidised animal feed product at the participating retailer.
Subsidised animal feed will be sold in lots of 10 bags only and no returns will be allowed.   A producer will qualify for a maximum of 100 bags of subsidised feed.  It is the responsibility of the producer to be fully acquainted with the rules of the fund, before they participate in this subsidisation scheme. Producers who want to utilise the subsidy must bring the following documents along: a copy of the FANMEAT card of the producer utilising the subsidy, a copy of the Identity card of the person utilising the subsidy.

Any transgression of the rules of the fund or any other transgression detected in the operation of this subsidisation scheme may be reported to the relevant authorities.