Africa-Press – Namibia. THE minister of agriculture, water and land reform, Calle Schlettwein, says it is inconceivable that rural councils can be allowed to run green schemes in the country.
He was addressing governors, councillors, and traditional authorities from Kavango East and Kavango West at Rundu on Monday in response to the regional leadership’s request to be allowed to take over the running of the green schemes in the two regions.
The minister said councils are politically elected institutions with a broad mandate to look at almost anything.
“If you say they must run green schemes, the council may as well run wholesalers, cattle farms, transport companies, traders and construction companies.
“What you are there for is to create the necessary environment policy wise and legal wise so that our citizens have the economic opportunity to do what the council wants to do.
“You are already empowered as councils, and those who need empowerment are farmers, the local population,” he said.
Schlettwein said green schemes were designed to be economic opportunities for local farmers.
He said the government’s long-term vision with green schemes is that local farmers would initially own small parts of the scheme, but as time goes by their equity would grow to bigger parts of the business.
He said green schemes must be linked to the value chain and must end at the farm gate.
“The mistake we made with green schemes at the beginning is that we dictated what should be grown there. We said ‘farm with wheat and maize’, and that has led to collapse,” he said.
Schlettwein acknowledged that diversification is important and green schemes can grow a variety of crops as well as farm with cattle to improve the quality and prices of beef, and to feed the export abattoirs.
The minister said the government had reached agreements with trading partners in Africa and China that they would buy beef from the foot-and-mouth zone, which opens the market for cattle from north of the veterinary cordon fence (redline).
“In the Zambezi we fixed the abattoir and the quarantine facility, and can now export that beef. The same can apply to Rundu,” he said.
The minister explained the nature of green schemes in Namibia.
He said there are three types, with the majority situated next to perennial rivers.
He said the availability of water for these schemes is regulated by bilateral agreements with states that also draw water from these shared rivers.
“Because water is an essential input into green schemes, we must realise these agreements are part and parcel of how we run them,” Schlettwein said.
The second type is where the government has built dams in the country for irrigation purposes.
“These are the Hardap, Neckartal and Naute schemes. They are not tied to any agreements with neighbours, and we can do what we want with the water,” he said.
The third type of green schemes are the smaller ones that tap into groundwater and are controlled under the Water Act and the size of the involved aquifer.
The green schemes along shared perennial rivers have limitations, the minister said.
“On the Okavango, for example, we are entitled to 3% of the total run-off. That is for villages, towns and green schemes, and it translates to 6 cubic metres per second, or 6 000 litres per second.”
Schlettwein said most green schemes have failed because they had the wrong business model.
“Green schemes were formed by the previous and present government on land donated by traditional authorities on condition that locals benefited in terms of jobs and farming opportunities,” he said.
However, when the first round of outsourcing was made, the beneficiaries did not adhere to agreements to benefit locals, he said, adding they failed to produce.
“Then Agribusdev took over, and they also failed because all decisions were made in Windhoek – even for small things, and they usually came too late.
“They resulted in complete failure. The Cabinet has now agreed that the green schemes be returned to private sector outsourcing, with the ministry and councils providing supervision,” he said.
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