Customize Consent Preferences

We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below.

The cookies that are categorized as "Necessary" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site. ... 

Always Active

Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.

No cookies to display.

Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.

No cookies to display.

Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

No cookies to display.

Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.

No cookies to display.

Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.

No cookies to display.

Sesfontein Stuck With Unwanted Tobacco Stock

Home Archived Sesfontein Stuck With Unwanted Tobacco Stock

By Wezi Tjaronda

SESFONTEIN

Communities around Sesfontein have stopped growing tobacco and paprika on a large scale after they lost their external markets a few years ago.

The community grew tonnes of oriental tobacco between 2002 and 2004 of which between seven and 11 were exported through Zimbabwe. However, due to the closure of that market, the Sesfontein Agricultural Extension Office of the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry is still holds 83 out of hundreds of bales that failed to get a market and have not been claimed by owners in the hope that the office will still get a market.

Most of them, though, were taken back by the farmers and sold locally or bartered for goats.

Agricultural Extension Officer for Sesfontein, Issy Mumbango, told New Era on Monday that his office tried to get another market in South America but that the tobacco that was available was very dry, thus could not be bought.

Mumbango said, “They requested some samples and we sent a whole bale but then the response was that the company could not buy because the tobacco was too dry.”

The same happened to paprika around the same year. Mumbango said they only exported three tonnes once to South Africa.

“We were also informed that the market closed and we could not send any more,” said Mumbango.

He said tobacco growing started after he attended a workshop in Zimbabwe, after which there was an agreement to export the produce grown in Namibia through that country. Sesfontein is suited for oriental tobacco because of its heat.

The communities grew these products in their individual plots allocated to them in Government gardens. The area has four gardens in Sesfontein, Warmquelle, Otjindakui and Gowareb.

Tobacco still by far outnumbers other crops not only in the community gardens but also in backyard gardens.

Jacob Hoeb said he consumed some of the tobacco and sold the rest.

Nicolas Hendriks said tobacco still has a market among the Ovahimba, where a kilogramme of good quality tobacco fetches a goat.

He now makes rolls of tobacco, which he sells to buyers from the north for N$400 each roll or for a big goat.

He said the tobacco inconvenienced the office because the warehouse should be used for farmers training sessions, which are now held under trees.

Mumbango said the ministry introduced community gardens in the late 1990s to encourage farmers to plant crops for consumption and sale.

The Sesfontein garden measures 11 hectares, while the other three are nine hectares each. Most of the plots have not been planted yet because communities are waiting for the tractor to plough.

Apart from tobacco, the communities also grow maize, watermelons, wheat, pumpkins, tomatoes and onions.