Jona Musheko
The Shadikongoro Green Scheme Irrigation project generated N$7 million during the past cropping season, of which N$3.5 million was profit, agriculture executive director Ndiyakupi Nghituwamata has revealed.
She made the revelation during her visit to the Kavango East-based green scheme yesterday.
“I am very much impressed with the performance of the Shadikongoro green scheme’s performance in the past cropping season. This will not be the first and last. Farm manager Mutero Joseph informed me that he will be expecting to make some profit again at the end of the current season,” she added.
The executive director is optimistic about the green scheme’s future.
“We can assure the nation that this year, there will be cooking oil that will come from Shadikongoro Green Scheme in the market,” said Nghituwamata.
Shadikongoro green project has planted 24 hectares (ha) of sunflowers to revive the sunflower-processing facility.
Apart from the 24ha that is being harvested at Shadikongoro, there is another 16ha of sunflower at Sikondo Green Scheme.
The plan is to process the sunflower seeds into cooking oil at the Shadikongoro processing plant on the farm, Nghituwamata said.
“Therefore, we started harvesting the sunflower on 6 May 2024, and thereafter the processing of the sunflower seeds will start. In addition, Sikondo irrigation project has also planted 16ha of sunflowers to supply Shadikongoro,” she added.
Employment opportunities have also been created in the process.
“We employed 60 temporary workers to harvest the sunflower, and more workers will be employed temporarily to work on the oil-processing plant,” said Joseph, the farm manager of Shadikongoro.
Nghituwamata is on a brief visit to the Shadikongoro Green Scheme Irrigation project with her top management, among them deputy executive directors Elijah Ngurare, Albertina Shilongo, Petrus Nangolo and Messag Mulunga, as well as representative from the United Nations World Food Programme, Sem Mandela.
During her 2024/25 budget motivation, deputy agriculture minister Anna Shiweda revealed that the ministry used N$120 million on the repair and maintenance of ageing irrigation infrastructure, procurement of new tractors and implements at government-operated green schemes, as well as procurement of production inputs.
“During the 2024/25 financial year, an amount of N$65 million has been allocated to the green scheme projects…this is a 54% reduction from the last allocation of N$120 million,” said Shiweda at the time.
* Jona Musheko is a public relations professional in the agriculture ministry.