A community seed bank is on the cards at the Eengombe village in the Uuvudhiya constituency of the Oshana region.
A one-day briefing and consultation meeting on the planned construction of the seed bank at the Eengombe Agricultural Development Centre was held at Oshakati recently.
Among the project’s goals is to strengthen local seed systems and improve links between the national genebank and community seed conservation.
Community seed banks also give farmers a place to share indigenous knowledge, exchange seeds, discuss which crop varieties perform well and learn from one another.
The Eengombe seed bank will serve the Kunene-Cuvelai landscape.
The chairperson of the Kunene-Cuvelai landscape under the project, Joseph Iitenge, told The Namibian the briefing and consultation sought to raise awareness among regional leaders and communities about the Dryland Sustainable Landscapes Impact Programme (DSL-IP), with a focus on community seed banks.
The meeting, according to Iitenge, was also meant to create a space for the DSL-IP programme and the National Botanic Research Institute to understand what stakeholders need and expect from seed banks, ensuring they meet the donor’s Free, Prior and Informed Consent requirements and to help stakeholders build their capacity.
The project is based on Land Degradation Neutrality principles, which focus on preventing, reducing and reversing land degradation, desertification and deforestation through the sustainable use of natural resources.
The project is supported by the DSL-IP, which is jointly implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Land Reform and the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism, in collaboration with the National Plant Genetic Resources Centre.
The project is funded by the Global Environment Facility through the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations. It aims to promote sustainable management of dry landscapes in northern Namibia, covering the Okavango, Etosha and Kunene-Cuvelai landscapes.
Regional implementation project officer Isak Kaholongo says the project is being implemented in 11 countries across Africa and Asia.
The project was launched in March 2023 and will run until April 2028.
Kaholongo says the project has already supplied drought-resistant crops, provided firefighting equipment and supported community-based organisations across the three landscapes.
He says it has also completed resource inventories and plans to rehabilitate an earth dam in the Uuvudhiya constituency.
The Uuvudhiya constituency councilor Timoteus Shivute welcomes the establishment of the seed bank. He says project officials had already consulted local farmers about the planned construction of the facility at Eengombe.
