THE growing number of new commercial farmers, also referred to as emerging commercial farmers, feel that existing farming organisations do not represent their interests and therefore decided to form their own union.
‘Some of us had joined either the Namibia Agricultural Union (NAU) or the Namibian National Farmers’ Union (NNFU), which represents the communal farmers, but we noticed that we could either not fit in or keep up with the pace far advanced farmers in the NAU for example,’ the leader of the Namibia Emerging Commercial Farmers’ Union (NECFU), Solomon Tjipura, told reporters yesterday.
‘We formed the Namibia Emerging Commercial Farmers’ Forum almost two years ago, but we realised in the meantime that as a forum and not a registered organisation, we are not acknowledged by various stakeholders and we were continuously omitted from invitation lists when the NAU and the NNFU were asked to discuss agricultural issues at national level,’ Tjipura added.
At a meeting at the end of last month, members decided to transform the forum into a properly registered organisation and to change its name to the Namibia Emerging Commercial Farmers’ Union (NECFU).
‘We have a potential of 2 000 members,’ Tjipura said, ‘and we have representatives in those eight regions in the country where commercial farming takes place.’
He declined to give current membership figures.
Last year already, Tjipura joined the Joint Presidency Committee (JPC), which consists of the leaders of the NAU and NNFU. However, Tjipura maintained that the needs of emerging farmers are different from communal and established farmers.
‘We want to be on an equal level with the existing agricultural bodies and we are already a member of the newly formed Agricultural Chamber,’ he responded to questions.
Asked why the needs of his group are special, he said they need capacity building and training.
‘We realised there is a high degree of ignorance among emerging commercial farmers about organised agriculture, there are gaps and thus neither the NAU nor the NNFU can adequately cater for us. We need a strong voice,’ he said.
Tjipura said the NECFU is in favour of forming one unified representative body for the agricultural sector in the long run, as envisaged by the NAU and NNFU.
But in his view, that would still take a while, and in the meantime the needs of emerging commercial farmers should be addressed.
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