Farmers at Orange River Irrigation Project aim for bumper harvest

Farmers at the Orange River Irrigation Project at Aussenkehr are aiming for a bumper harvest from dates produced for the 2024/2025 harvest year.

The Orange River Irrigation Project (Orip) is a green scheme project primarily focused on cultivating dates, alongside other vegetables like pumpkins, tomatoes and onions, using water from the Orange River for irrigation.

Farm manager Paulus Mungoba says the farm has been working consistently for the past three years to increase its yield and has seen output increase over the past two years.

During that time, workers of the irrigation scheme were uncertain about their jobs following the government’s decision to dissolve the Agricultural Business Development Agency.

“Now we’re expecting 200 metric tonnes of dates, especially on our Medjool. We don’t really count on the two other cultivars because their harvest is very minimal, and also the market for it is really not the same as these Medjool,” says Mungoba.

The project cultivates Medjool and Kwadrawi dates on 29 hectares (ha) of land, and the harvesting of dates is set for the end of April.

Mungoba says the dates are exported through buyers selected via a tender process. About 100 additional job opportunities are expected to be created during the harvesting period.

Orip is a 520ha government-owned farm.

Currently, the farm has 166 ha under production, of which 86ha and 80ha are under commercial and small-scale farming, respectively.

The land under commercial production is 25ha for grape production, 40ha for dates and 21ha for vegetables, all by means of drip irrigation systems.

Mungoba says the other area measuring 80ha is allocated to 20 small-scale farmers of which each farmer occupies an area of four hectares. They produce grapes and dates.

“The project is considered one of the key agricultural initiatives in the country utilising the Orange River water source for farming purposes.

It also aims to promote small-scale farming and contribute to food security in Namibia,” says the farm manager.

The farm is, however, facing challenges. One of them being broken cool room facilities despite the expected bumper harvest. Mungoba says the cool room will soon undergo repairs, estimated to cost N$1.4 million.

Workers claim they have been discriminated against as some workers are members of the Government Institutions Pension Fund (GIPF) and others not.

Workers’ spokesperson Marshall Lothar says their benefits as members of the Orion pension are not increasing.

Lothar says, therefore, they are demanding that all workers be registered at GIPF and removed from Orion.

“We are demanding to move to GIPF where we can have more benefits like others … we don’t know why we have been separated. Some of the employees are also at Old Mutual.

Now we are asking ourselves if this is not one company and we signed the same contracts,” says Lothar.

Mungoba says the company is in the process of looking into the disparities.

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