Karas needs more livestock, crop researchers

KEETMANSHOOP – The Karas Region is still experiencing an acute shortage of agricultural researchers, despite the important role played by agriculture in the socio-economic development of the country.

This situation has now prompted a Keetmanshoop-based livestock researcher in the Ministry of Agriculture, Rebekka Namwandi, to request Government to bring more crop and livestock researchers to the region. She personally requested Agriculture Minister John Mutorwa to look into the need for agriculture researchers in the southern region when the minister visited the Gellaper-Ost Agricultural Research Centre near Keetmanshoop last week. Namwandi is currently the only livestock researcher available. There is no single crop researcher in the whole Karas Region.’We really need a lot of crop researchers in this region so that they can work on improving crop quality, and discover new plant species that can be utilised for the country’s economic development,’ she said.Namwandi also suffers from staff shortages at Gellaper-Ost. Mutorwa said Government is reorganising research activities to make sure that enough researchers are trained and deployed into the regions. A National Research Institution would be put up in Windhoek this year to train more researchers, he said.Mutorwa said it is very important to have researchers who can discover valuable resources and cross-breed animals that can produce good quality products.’We are not going to devalue the importance of research in this country, and I promise you we will provide enough researchers throughout the country,’ assured the Minister. – Nampa