Staff Writer
Environment minister Pohamba Shifeta says Namibia has to invest in small and medium producers for the economy to blossom.
Shifeta told the gathering at the handover ceremony of the Otjimboyo Resilience Horticultural Project in Erongo that small and medium producers must stop producing for their immediate family needs alone but adopt a business-like attitude to production.
The Otjimboyo Resilience Horticultural project is in the Daures Constituency. It received N$ 1 700 000,00 under the Climate Resilient Agriculture investment window under the Empower to Adapt (EDA) project.
EDA’s work centres on Creating Climate Change Resilient Livelihoods through Community Based Natural Resource Management in Namibia (CBNRM EDA Project).
The Otjimboyo Resilience Horticultural project is funded under the CBNRM EDA Project, which is implemented through the Environmental Investment Fund of Namibia (EIF).
The project under implementation by Otjimboyo conservancy aims to strengthen the adaptive capacity and climate change resilience of communities in the conservancy by improving the water and food security of vulnerable communities.
Currently, the project has a functional solar hydroponic system that has been successfully established with a 76 000-litre dam constructed on site.
In addition, the project has established a fertigation room, office space, storeroom, and ablution facilities on site. The project site is electrically fenced off to deter elephant destruction, with 0.7 hectares
greenhouse under cultivation.
The project recorded its bumper harvest early this year. The project has also successfully retrofitted (converted) diesel pump boreholes into solar-powered pumps for the village.
According to Shifeta, if small and medium producers produce for the nation, Namibia shall have begun to seriously address the problem of hunger, malnutrition, poverty and food shortages in general.
“A vibrant and ever-progressive nation will enable us to
address the unemployment problem more effectively and build the momentum for sustained economic growth.
“As we observe the successful implementation of this project, it is important that we pay particular attention to the issue of market access for the horticultural produce, sustainable production, environmental sustainability, social and economic empowerment,” Shifeta said.
The minister noted that smallholder farmers have already observed the ongoing natural variability and that changes in rainfall patterns and extreme weather conditions have marked the last few years.
He said apart from temperature changes; rainfall changes have been noticed in the Erongo region as an increased length of the dry season, a decrease in the number of consecutive wet days, and overall, a later start and earlier cessation of the rainy season.
The Otjimboyo project chairperson, Theofelius Iyambo Naruseb, highlighted the conservancy’s history and indicated that the conservancy resilience horticultural project was set up to address food security issues to avoid depending on handouts.
EIF chief executive officer Benedict Libanda said the Fund would further engage its developmental partners to see if projects of this magnitude can be expanded because resilience and improved food security can greatly improve the lives of the community of the Otjimboyo
conservancy.
“We are extremely proud of the work that we are seeing here today and that this commitment to the success of this project will go a long way
and serve as an example to others,” Libanda said.
