Africa-Press – Namibia. THE Ohangwena Regional Council raised close to N$300 000 for hosting the first Ohangwena ConfEx at a gala dinner on Saturday.
The World Food Organisation, as the main sponsors, pledged N$150 000.
The ConfEx, which will be held under the theme “Igniting the Ohangwena Food Basket”, will take place from 10 to 13 August in the Eenhana town.
The minister in the presidency, Christine //Hoebes, said that the Expo aims to empower small-scale subsistence farmers to effectively and efficiently network, craft collaborations and meticulously promote food production, among many other gains.
“These types of unified approaches to the common issues we face are particularly important as we need to find each other and not turn against each other in these extraordinary times,” she said.
//Hoebes added that as a nation, they are gradually recovering from the most challenging and dark times, which started with a crippling drought that heavily hit many farmers and, in some cases, flooding that destroyed homes and food reserves.
If that was not enough, she stated that an unbearable global economic recession hit the world and placed tremendous pressure on Namibia and while they were trying to breathe from that attack, the black cloud of Covid-19 befell the country with many restrictions and fatalities, which touched on the income of all the people.
According to her, it is pleasing to note that the Ohangwena International Agri Food Expo is positioning itself right at the centre of those many potential turnaround vehicles of the economic fortunes.
She then commended the organisers of the envisaged event.
The World Food Programme (WFP) country director, George Fedha, in a speech read on his behalf, said Namibia’s Agri-sector is paramount and provides stable livelihoods to over 70% of the population and employs approximately 23% of new the workforce.
“It is on this basis that we need to identify, mitigate our communities against risks and strengthen the resilience for both small-scale and large-scale agriculture farmers,” Fedha said.
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