GOBABIS – The year 2015 is set to be remembered in the annals of the Namibian agricultural industry as the year of unification with the merging of four shows/trade fairs in two of the most important regions of the country’s livestock sector next year just a formality.
The breakthrough will happen after various calls from role players and stakeholders in the industry to end working in fragmented ways by staging separate shows/trade fairs in the Omaheke and Otjozondupa Regions this year which proved to be less popular than previous years and in both cases failed to provide the expected economic income and spin-offs from the shows.
CEO of Meatco Adv. Vekuii Rukoro got the ball rolling for these mergers when he recently rubbed Show and Trade Fare Societies over the knuckles for operating in increasingly fragmented ways, saying such actions do not promote the interests of the communities in regions, but rather work against it.
Farmers Forum reported at the end of August that the Okamatapati Industrial and Agricultural Show hosted by the Ongombe Farmers Association in Otjiwarongo laid the foundations for the merger of the 2015 Okamatapati /Otjiwarongo Show that has the potential to become the second biggest show in the country.
Last week, Governor of the Omaheke Region, Festus Ueitele, told Farmers Forum in an exclusive interview that the merging of the Gobabis Show and the Omaheke Trade Fair can also be considered s done deal for 2015.
“The time has come to merge the two events. Last week’s third Omaheke Trade Fair proved this without doubt when our attendance figures dropped drastically compared to the previous year. I had discussions with the Gobabis Show Society just before the two shows took place in Gobabis and it was decided that we must merge the two events next year and pay tribute to the importance of the agricultural sector by staging an event of a new magnitude that the whole region will be proud of. We have some technicalities to sort out but next year the people of the Omaheke will unite under one umbrella,” he says.
Formal discussions between chief organiser of the Okamatapati Show Albert Tjihero, and chairperson of the Otjiwarongo Show Society Dirk Faul have resulted in the same outcome for next year’s Okamatapati/Otjiwarongo Show that will put Otjiwarongo back on the map as agricultural hub of the north/central regions of Namibia.
It’s also just a question of fine-tuning the details to combine the Okamatapati and Otjiwarongo shows. The Otjiwarongo Show was revived after five years of no-show on September 11 to September 13, while the curtains were drawn the first Okamatapati Show in Otjiwarongo a week earlier.
Chairperson of the Gobabis Show Floris van Niekerk says this year’s show over four working days proved that it is time for a merger with dwindling attendance numbers compared to previous years.
“The combined effort of the two show societies has the potential to become the flagship of Namibian agricultural shows if we tap into the full potential of all the communal, emerging and commercial farmers spread over a vast area of various regions. In terms of numbers and quality, we are able to compete with even the Windhoek Agricultural Show,” says Albert Tjihero.
Rukoro says divided interests not only duplicate efforts and stretches resources that are already limited, but also diminish the impact of each individual group. He is urging communities and farming groups to work together in order to achieve much more.
He says corporates are not interested in promoting the separate and individual interests of subgroups in the community, especially groups in the same town of farming area.
“This fragmented way of working forces corporates like Meatco to divide whatever little resources we have among many competing subgroups within the same community or region, thus reducing the ultimate of such support in the final analysis. Even though shows and trade fairs have increased at a rapid rate, the events budgets of corporates like Meatco only experience a modest increase,” he notes.
Rukoro says after 25 years of independence as a united country Namibians don’t want to perpetuate the fragmentation of the meat industry into communal farmers, emerging farmers and commercial farmers. “We want to talk about unified Namibian farmers, who are merely at different stages of the same journey,” he stressed.
He concluded by saying farmers are paying N$10 000 per head for an animal that should cost N$3 500. “That is not very efficient, and it’s just because we are not working together. Imagine the value we can unlock if we manage this production chain to a common vision,” he says.
The mergers will tap into the full potential of farmers in all sectors from Rietfontein, Okamatapati, Aminuis, Epikiru, Okakarara and anywhere else in the Otjozondjupa and Omaheke Regions will be tapped while the Otjiwarongo Show Society and the Gobabis Show Society will make sure the vast commercial resources in the areas are brought to the party. Ueitle says he also blames insufficient marketing for the decline in interest at this year’s event.
“If we combine all these shows, we will save farmers a lot of money on transport costs and we will attract much bigger crowds,” he says.