By Wezi Tjaronda WINDHOEK The current grazing situation in the country is getting worse by the day, so much so that sheep producers need to remove tens of thousands of animals from their farms as a matter of urgency. Although last month the farmers through their unions asked for an increase in on-the-hoof exports to South Africa to relieve pressure on their farms for the period April to May, the situation, according to the unions, has deteriorated even further. The Namibia Agricultural Union and the Namibia National Farmers’ Union and their stakeholders on Monday met the Minister of Agriculture, Water and Forestry, Dr Nickey Iyambo, to ask for relaxation of the current quota system in order to create more space and allow more animals to leave the country on the hoof. The 6:1 ration was relaxed to 3:1 for the time being. Farmers want the system to be relaxed once more for another two to three months. Producers say that with no significant rains falling in March and April, farmers want to get rid of their breeding stock to survive. The Meat Board of Namibia was tasked with formulating a strategy which was supposed to be presented to the minister yesterday. The Meat Board’s managing director Paul Strydom told New Era yesterday the meeting requested certain information from the Meat Board, which would be submitted to the minister for him to make a decision. He said the revised scheme was not helping much because of restrictive legislation that requires one to slaughter first before exporting. “This is hampering the marketing of non-slaughter ready animals,” said Strydom. According to a statement from the NAU on Monday, a survey revealed that there are 240 000 sheep that currently need to be taken off the farms urgently to make provision for sufficient grazing to carry core herds for the rest of the season. This number though excludes current bookings done at abattoirs. Strydom said abattoirs were slaughtering at more than their full capacity, a situation that has been aggravated by striking workers who have since been suspended at Meatco. The Abattoir Association of Namibia said yesterday between 60 000 and 75 000 sheep need to be taken off the land to relieve pressure on the land. Calls to a number of abattoirs revealed that slaughterhouses are slaughtering at nearly full capacity and that they have accommodated all the animals that were booked so far. Abattoirs say they slaughter between 1 350 and 1 500 sheep a day except on Saturdays when they slaughter 800 sheep. Sheep slaughtering at Meatco only starts with 450 sheep tomorrow by a group that has been made up of personnel from the pig slaughter floor and other areas after it was forced to stop because of a strike by some 119 workers on Thursday. ÃÆ’Æ‘ÀÃ…ÃÆ”šÃ‚ The Abattoir Association said in its position paper on the marketing of Namibian lamb and sheep, in March this year, that as a country with limited resources Namibia should optimise revenue earnings through value addition. “In the meat industry, this can be realised by the meat value chain from farm to fork,” the paper, signed by different heads of abattoirs in Namibia, said. In 2003, Cabinet resolved to stimulate local value-addition by the “exemption of live sheep from the 15 percent export levy on condition that the existing slaughtering facilities and tanneries are utilised to full capacity within four years as from 1 November, 2003. The local slaughter to export ratio has thus changed from 1:1 in 2004 to 2:1 in 2005 and 6:1 in 2006. The association said based on the government resolutions, investors and abattoir owners invested millions in infrastructure to accommodate the vision and policies of, among others, Karas Abattoir and Tannery (Pty) Ltd, Meatco Windhoek and Meat Market Mariental Abattoir , and improved their facilities to accommodate a larger number of sheep per day, while a new abattoir was built in Aranos. “Sufficient capacity exists in Namibia to slaughter all marketable sheep in the country under normal marketing conditions,” it said. Government policy dictates that all slaughterable lamb and sheep must be slaughtered in Namibia by November 2007.