By: Nghiinomenwa Erastus
Various stakeholders have united their voices to establish a central contact for dialogue with the government and relevant stakeholders.
Establishing the Namibian Chamber of Agriculture (NCA).
The statement released by the newly formed Agri-chamber said the agriculture sector has been discussing the need to develop an organisation to represent the participants’ collective voice.
Saying the consensus was reached on the first of October 2021 to establish the NCA- as one of the outcomes of the Agriculture Conference held in September 2020.
The statement explained that the Agri-Chamber would champion viable, intelligent, integrated, and holistic agriculture value chains.
There have been approximately over 35 organisations that indicated an interest in being members of the chamber.
During its establishment early this month, members discussed and adopted the Constitution and approved the organisation business plan.
Members also elected the board, which according to the statement, has representatives across the value chains, namely; producers, material and financial input suppliers, traders, processors, agricultural, civil society, academia, and research institutions.
Michael Iyambo has been elected as the acting chairperson.
In addition, there are three permanent advisors on the board, nominated by the State-Owned Enterprise regulatory boards.
The chamber indicated that there would be a secretariat responsible for the day-to-day activities of the organisation.
Iyambo as the acting chairperson, said the chamber would be providing well-researched and widely consulted inputs into relevant policy documents.
Moreover, guide sustainable and inclusive sectoral development and facilitate access to mentorship and training.
The Agri- Chamber is still inviting industry players to become members.
CURRENT SITUATION IN AGRICULTURE
According to the Namibia Statistics Agency, the agriculture contribution to the country’s wealth has been inconsistent for the past five years.
NSA said Namibia is a net importer of agricultural commodities-during 2021Q2, the import bill stood at N$646,9 million, whereas export earnings stood at N$476,2 million.
Moreover, the agriculture and forestry sector posted a decline in real value added of 6,9% compared to positive growth of 67%.
The climate impact through drought has been affecting both livestock and crop production.
With few commercial farmers, the country is heavily dependent on rain-fed crop production, while government green schemes are underutilised.
There have been calls, especially from the former Agribank chief executive officer Sakaria Nghikembua to de-risk the country from rain dependence by utilising the country’s abundant underground water.
The sector faces new challenges/competition, such as introducing the African Continental Free Trade Area, which aims to open borders for more intra-African trade.
The country’s agricultural sector is currently embroiled and divided by the red-line issue, with no solution or consensus on how to empower the northern farmers without risking the whole industry.
Other updates include the collapse of the dairy industry, more than 50% fall in output expected by the end of this year- as the country imports N$N$40,8 million in three months of t 2021Q2.
Another challenge the sector faces is the slowly collapsing of value addition in the beef sector, as the country becomes a weaner-exporting state- reducing throughput at abattoirs.
By the end of the second quarter of 2021, Namibia has sold live cattle valued at N$240,9 million; South Africa took up 95% of them.
The Agri-chamber is faced with the task of uniting producers and export abattoirs, measures to improve the dairy industry output, the red-line issue, and overall reducing the overall country dependence on agri-imports. Email: erastus@thevillager.com.na