Africa-Press – Namibia. THE veterinary cordon fence (redline) will not be moved soon, says public policy analyst and University of Namibia lecturer Gerson Sindano.
He says farmers north of the redline should look at alternative markets for their livestock.
Sindano made these remarks on Tuesday at the official opening of a two-day stakeholder engagement aimed at developing a five-year strategic plan for the Kavango East Regional Farmers Union (Kerfu) at Rundu.
“In 1896, Namibia suffered a serious outbreak of rinderpest (cattle disease), during which German settlers and the Hereros suffered losses.
“To protect German herds from future epidemics, the veterinary cordon fence was introduced,” Sindano said.
He suggested a solution would be to create foot-and-mouth disease-free zones with feedlots in each constituency to act as quarantine zones.
This would, however, require political will, he said, and the zones which remain disease-free could then be given access to other markets, such as those under the Southern African Development Community (SADC) free-trade agreement.
Sindano said although a proposal to move the fence to the Angolan border has been considered in the past, the idea is impractical because of the continuous movement of family livestock across the Namibia-Angola border.
He said the government should rather establish mobile quality assurance offices to ensure the quality of livestock in each constituency.
“The farmer unions north of the redline should also be robust to advocate infrastructural development, such as feeder roads, and borehole and communication infrastructure,” he said.
Other topics discussed during the engagement were the role of regional governments in agricultural development and support to farmers, the value of education in agriculture and natural resources for the development of the Kavango East region to increase productivity, enhancing innovation, including strategies to maintain and promote animal health, and ensuring the safe and orderly marketing of livestock and livestock products.
Meanwhile, the president of the Namibia National Farmers Union, Jason Emvula, said the redline has been used politically and as a disease-control point, but the political motivation has not faded.
He said there are many good solutions to the redline issue, which have been politicised in many cases.
The NNFU is, however, a non-political, non-ethnical and non-tribal organisation.
“We don’t want to politicise food and anybody coming up to politicise food. That is poison to us…
“In essence, we need to do more and see how best we can address this issue once and for all,” Emvula said.
Furthermore, the engagement also discussed capital projects like the Rundu abattoir and the Vhungu-vhungu dairy farm, which have not been completed nine years since their construction, and the future of green schemes.
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