Private tractor owners reluctant to partner with Ministry

THE Ministry of Agriculture says because ploughing rendered to communal farmers by private tractor owners has to be verified before they are paid, this could lead to them having to wait too long for their payment.

At the moment, many private tractor owners are not willing to partner with the ministry’s Dry-land Crop Production (DCP) programme, under which Government pays part of the ploughing costs on behalf of communal farmers to private tractor owners for ploughing their fields.Private tractor owners claim they have to wait up to three months to be paid by Government.’That is possible because the land that has been ploughed has to be verified and measured,’ said Enny Namalambo, a senior official in the ministry. She also attributed the long wait to floods that sometimes make roads impassable. This planting season, communal farmers in the northern regions will have to pay more for making use private tractors to plough their mahangu fields, as the tractor owners now charge between N$300 and N$320 per hectare.Although Government also has subsidised tractors, these tractors are hard to find. The programme has a combination of ploughing services, seed subsidies, fertilisers and weeding services, while it also make provision for a farmer to hire a private tractor at a cost of N$300 per hectare, of which N$200 is paid by Government through the scheme and the remaining N$100 is paid by the farmer.Martin Embundile, a chief agricultural oficer at Ongwediva, has called on private tractor owners to support the DCP programme. Meanwhile, crop farmers in Kunene North this week received two tractors from Government to cultivate their fields.Senior agricultural extension officer Eliaser Ambata said one tractor was delivered on Monday at Otjisokotjongava and the second one was expected to arrive today at Opuwo. Villagers in the region have to register to use these two tractors. According to Ambata, farmers have to pay Government N$300 per hectare for ripping, planting and fertilising the soil. For ripping only, farmers pay N$150 per hectare.Ambata called on farmers with small fields of less than one hectare to use draught animals for ploughing in order to cut costs. Additional reporting by Nampa