Farmworkers get conflict training with a difference

AGRA Co-operative, in conjunction with the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF), last week held a second training course for farmworkers to teach them about livestock management and how to resolve conflict with predators.

Twenty farmworkers from the north-central farm area attended the course at the CCF headquarters outside Otjiwarongo. Participants tackled a variety of practical farming aspects ranging from animal health, vaccination programmes and wound treatment to predator kill identification.Farmworkers are a key aspect of any farming operation and as such it is imperative that their skills and capacity be developed to the maximum.The majority of participants had not received such training before and said although not all the topics were new to them, the additional information gained would contribute greatly towards improving their performance on the farm.Bonnie Schumann, course co-ordinator at CCF, said the participants were “tireless in their desire to learn and participate”.Birgit Hoffmann, Agra’s Marketing Manager, expressed satisfaction that the aims of both CCF and Agra to improve the skills and morale of farm workers through training, thereby improving productivity on the farm, had been achieved.The CCF is a Namibian non-profit trust dedicated to the long-term survival of the cheetah and its ecosystem.Agra is the largest multi-purpose agricultural co-operative in Namibia, with about 7 000 shareholders.It was founded in 1980 as a co-operative and profits are channelled back to shareholders and reinvested in the country.Participants tackled a variety of practical farming aspects ranging from animal health, vaccination programmes and wound treatment to predator kill identification.Farmworkers are a key aspect of any farming operation and as such it is imperative that their skills and capacity be developed to the maximum.The majority of participants had not received such training before and said although not all the topics were new to them, the additional information gained would contribute greatly towards improving their performance on the farm.Bonnie Schumann, course co-ordinator at CCF, said the participants were “tireless in their desire to learn and participate”.Birgit Hoffmann, Agra’s Marketing Manager, expressed satisfaction that the aims of both CCF and Agra to improve the skills and morale of farm workers through training, thereby improving productivity on the farm, had been achieved.The CCF is a Namibian non-profit trust dedicated to the long-term survival of the cheetah and its ecosystem.Agra is the largest multi-purpose agricultural co-operative in Namibia, with about 7 000 shareholders.It was founded in 1980 as a co-operative and profits are channelled back to shareholders and reinvested in the country.