Commercial farmers help resettled colleagues

AROUND 50 commercial farmers last week kicked off a series of meetings at which they expect to share their know-how and experience with newly resettled colleagues in the South.

The idea is for established commercial farmers to support people resettled under Government’s reform programme or those who bought farms through the Affirmative Action Loan Scheme. Namibia Agricultural Union (NAU) Executive Manager Sakkie Coetzee said the first phase would concentrate on farmers about to join the programme.The Dutch government has provided N$1,5 million for that part.Dubbed the Emerging Commercial Farmers’ Support Programme, it aims to help recipients of the Agricultural Bank’s Affirmative Action Loan and Government’s Resettlement Schemes to become more productive by applying appropriate “economical and environmentally sustainable agricultural practices”.It appears to be a direct response to recent criticism that farms acquired under land redistribution programmes had become unproductive as those resettled on the properties lacked know-how on scientific methods of farming.Critics feel that communal farmers are being “dumped” in commercial areas without proper technical training on financial control as well as sustainable range land and livestock production management.At last week’s meetings, co-chaired by Coetzee and the Namibia National Farmers Union’s (NNFU) Programme Co-ordinator, Oloff Munjanu, many of the black farmers demanded that assistance be accompanied by additional financial backing.They claimed that they had found some of the farms in a terrible state and had had to invest a lot of money before they could become productive.Since Independence, about nine per cent of freehold land has been redistributed through the resettlement programme.However, emerging commercial farmers did not receive much back-up support to help them become economically self-sustainable farmers who could continue to agricultural production.Coetzee said the first phase would be followed by another: commercial farmers would mentor their new counterparts under a yet-to-be-established agency.The inception phase will run for six months with the major part of the N$1,5 million to be spent on 10 mobilisation workshops and a needs assessment.Namibia Agricultural Union (NAU) Executive Manager Sakkie Coetzee said the first phase would concentrate on farmers about to join the programme.The Dutch government has provided N$1,5 million for that part.Dubbed the Emerging Commercial Farmers’ Support Programme, it aims to help recipients of the Agricultural Bank’s Affirmative Action Loan and Government’s Resettlement Schemes to become more productive by applying appropriate “economical and environmentally sustainable agricultural practices”.It appears to be a direct response to recent criticism that farms acquired under land redistribution programmes had become unproductive as those resettled on the properties lacked know-how on scientific methods of farming.Critics feel that communal farmers are being “dumped” in commercial areas without proper technical training on financial control as well as sustainable range land and livestock production management.At last week’s meetings, co-chaired by Coetzee and the Namibia National Farmers Union’s (NNFU) Programme Co-ordinator, Oloff Munjanu, many of the black farmers demanded that assistance be accompanied by additional financial backing.They claimed that they had found some of the farms in a terrible state and had had to invest a lot of money before they could become productive.Since Independence, about nine per cent of freehold land has been redistributed through the resettlement programme.However, emerging commercial farmers did not receive much back-up support to help them become economically self-sustainable farmers who could continue to agricultural production.Coetzee said the first phase would be followed by another: commercial farmers would mentor their new counterparts under a yet-to-be-established agency.The inception phase will run for six months with the major part of the N$1,5 million to be spent on 10 mobilisation workshops and a needs assessment.