2017-05-26Staff Report 2 Edgar Brandt Bothaville (South Africa) Namibia’s High Commissioner to South Africa, Veiccoh Nghiwete, has commended Governor of the Kavango East Region, Ambassador Samuel Mbambo, for initiating Operation Werengendje and the hosting of the Food Namibia Trade Expo and Conference. In light of Mbambo’s initiatives to increase food security in his region and in the country, Nghiwete invited Mbambo and a Namibian delegation to participate in this year’s Nampo Agricultural Expo in South Africa, which is one of the largest events of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere. “It is important for Namibians to have exposure to an event like the Nampo Expo 2017. Besides the rapidly advancing agricultural technology, the event is also an eye-opener for preparations for the Food Namibia Expo later this year,” Namibian High Commission Commercial Counsellor Bonaventura Hinda said. She further encouraged both large-scale and small-scale farmers as well as businesses to consider participating in Nampo 2018, which is scheduled to take place in May next year. Operation Werengendje, or Operation Ants/Termites, which is a programme to strengthen food security in the Kavango East Region, has thus far assisted more than 300 farmers and resulted in the ploughing of more than 2,000 hectares of land. This is after Mbambo’s office injected N$800 000 and the Office of the Prime Minister donated 4 tonnes of seeds to the programme, launched in September 2016. In the same vein, the first-ever Food Namibia Trade Expo and Conference, scheduled for September this year, aims to bring together key stakeholders in government and the agricultural and food production industries to discuss crucial issues concerning the future and sustainability of domestic food production. Businesses or institutions operating within the spheres of agriculture and food processing, including manufacturing, production, farming, retailing, distribution or investment, have been invited to participate in the Food Expo. “We have also invited communal farmers to take part with the specific goal of getting them to think like commercial farmers. Value addition is also one of the key aspects we will discuss,” one of the organisers of the Food Expo Manfred Likoro said. 2017-05-26Staff Report 2
