2017-03-10Staff Report 2 Staff Reporter Rundu-Kavango East, a region that has had its fair share of drought, poverty and resultant economic hardships, is using Operation Werengendje to overcome these challenges, revealed Kavango East Governor Dr Samuel Mbambo. The food production initiative ‘Operation Werengendje’ – an idea of the Kavango East governor and his leadership – seems well on track and progressing well. Mbambo says as a result a food expo is planned for Kavango East at Rundu in June. “When we came up with the idea of Operation Werengendje some of our friends said yes that is a good idea, but asked what are we going to do after having food. We said we do not have an idea and so the idea of the food expo was born, the first of its kind in this region and in Namibia,” he said. Mbambo was speaking during a presentation held on Monday in Rundu on the upcoming food expo. The planned food expo and conference is being organised by Food Namibia. “We came to the region to do our presentation recently about our organisation Food Namibia and we discovered that the governor has an operation of food production and we thought why not wait until they have harvested, and with the food expo let the farmers showcase the produce from the fields in the form of exhibiting different food types and products,” said Manfried Likoro from Food Namibia. When the rainy season started late last year the office of the governor initiated and launched the food production operation and empowered people to plough their fields by providing them with ploughing services and seeds, and now the governor’s office is helping them to harvest crops. “We are using the funds that we got from Namsov last year to assist our people to plough large hectares for them to harvest more food,” Mbambo said in reference to the fishing company Namsov. “We are in an economic calabash and Kavango East says we will keep on pushing till we get on top by using Operation Werengendje. As we are speaking now, if you go to some of the villages people are eating some of the fruits of the operation, because we said we will not just sit down and wait for hunger to kill us.” The objectives of the expo are to showcase crop production and products in Kavango East and Namibia at large, as well as create awareness surrounding agriculture and food production industries in Namibia and thus provide a platform for showcasing, networking and matchmaking. The expo and conference will also allow people in the agriculture sector to share information, knowledge, skills and more. 2017-03-10Staff Report 2
