Africa-Press – Namibia. LIVESTOCK farming is a major contributor to Namibia’s economic development, provided livestock producers and processors participate along the entire beef value chain.
“We cannot continue with business as usual. We need to deploy a complete paradigm shift, in order to change farm management at the producers’ level.” This was the message of Agriculture Executive Director Percy Misika during an inception workshop held in Outapi this week.
The workshop was part of the European Union (EU) funded livestock support project aimed at improving livestock farming in the Northern Communal Areas (NCA).
Misika explained that producers could for example benefit through meat and dairy products, as well as byproducts like hides and skins. Misika said the ministry plans to revive the tannery industry but the sustainability thereof depends on the farmers’ constant supply of hides and skins.
Capacity building in terms of diagnostic services, surveillance and traceability through epidemiological activities and rehabilitating all animal handling facilities are to be implemented under the project.
Misika implored NCA livestock producers and other key stakeholders such as the Namibia National Farmers Union (NNFU) and cooperatives to join hands with the ministry in mobilising farmers to utilise these resources.
Although the ministry has always been able to contain Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD), the livestock support project is also aimed at improving veterinary service delivery, he said.
“For the past years, our farmers were faced with numerous challenges such as market access and low prices for their animals under the pretext of poor quality of our animals,” said Omusati governor Erginus Endjala.
He said he hopes those impediments will be ironed out and the industries normalised for their farmers to be treated equally to those on the other side of the redline, Namibia’s veterinary cordon fence.
The governor urged farmers to manage their grazing areas properly within their jurisdiction as they might jeopardise efforts to build resilience mechanisms for their region.
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