Govt urged to incentivise young farmers

The diversification of commercial farming operations could help make ventures self-sustaining.

This is the view of unionist, sport administrator and farmer Ranga Haikali, who farms at the 6 000ha farm Okwenima he acquired in 2001, about 40km north of Otjiwarongo.

“I started with cattle and a few goats, but I diversified into exotic and general game. I started breeding racing horses and ventured into poultry and piggery. I started with 35 pigs in February 2023 and by May 2024 they had increased to 450.

“I have built a 15-room lodge for trophy hunters and conference visitors, but we were hit by the global economic downturn and Covid-19, making the facility fail to break even,” he says.

Haikali says Namibian young people could be enticed to take up farming as a career if the government gives them land, loans and working capital.

“I started farming as a young man, initially with cattle and a few goats and sheep, and I’ve been putting up the infrastructure over the last 23 years,” he says.

LOAN BENEFICIARY

Haikali is a beneficiary of the Agribank Affirmative Action Loan (AAL) scheme, which he has repaid.

He says although the AAL has had limited success, it is not the best model for young people, as some fail to repay the loans.

Young people need better incentives, he says.

Agribank says defaulting farmers owe the institution close to N$1 billion.

“Resettlement is a better incentive for the youth, as the land is free, and they would only need loans for operations,” Haikali says, adding that statistics show that more elderly people are being resettled and that the involved farms are not productive, because the beneficiaries do not have the resources to make the farms productive.

FARMING JOURNEY

“My first crop was mahangu, which I used for stock feed,” he says, adding that he then grew fruits like lemons, oranges, granadillas, avocados and bananas.

“I also experimented with pine apples and cassava. I have now grown cabbages on 4,5ha, and that will be the biggest cash crop at the farm to date. We are also preparing land for growing lucerne, butternut, tomatoes and onions, and with all the manure produced at the farm, 80% of the crops we grow are organic.

“We want to try wheat as a winter crop. I have invested in pallet machinery so that the lucerne can be processed at the farm.

“The horticulture produce will be sold through the Agro-Marketing and Trade Agency, in line with the Namibian Agronomic Board’s market share promotion scheme, involving that importers of vegetables, like retailers, must get 47% of their requirement from local producers before they can be issued an import permit.

“We want to prove to consumers that we can produce at least 40% of the country’s vegetable requirements. This would also make us prove to the government that we can contribute to food self-sufficiency,” he says.

Haikali employs 15 permanent workers and about 50 seasonal helpers who harvest, package and load produce.

“However, I do not allow children to work on the farm, because that perpetuates the culture of being farmworkers,” he says.

Haikali says many white farmers have inherited land, while others got easy loans from commercial banks, yet black people who want to start commercial farming do so after retirement and use their pension funds.

This is a blunder, he says.

“That is why resettled farmers, some of them former farmworkers who do not have a pension, are not productive on these farms. They are too old and were dropped on the side of the road or in the corridors, and the government has to find land for them,” he says.

Haikali says his biggest challenges as a farmer has been the theft of infrastructure and livestock.

“I have reported many theft cases from my farm, but many remain unsolved. I have also encountered a high turnover of workers who are fired because of indiscipline, theft or other issues,” he says.

Haikali advises against running a farming enterprise from a cozy office in Windhoek, unless one employs someone who knows all about farming.

He says while the government cannot do everything for farmers, it has done a lot, like resettling people, and ensuring access to water and rural electrification.

– email: matthew@namibian.com.na