Zambezi sugar plant on the horizon

The government is conducting a feasibility study to establish a sugar plantation and processing plant in the Zambezi region, alongside reviving the Kalimbeza Rice Project.

Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Land Reform spokesperson Simon Nghipandulwa this week said he did not know how long the feasibility study would take.

“On the issue of the sugar plantation plant and the processing plants, we are still busy conducting the feasibility study,” he said.

During Namibia’s independence celebrations at Katima Mulilo last year, former president Nangolo Mbumba announced that the government made a budget allocation of N$8 million to revive the Kalimbeza Rice Project and has further approved plans to set up a sugar plantation and processing plant at Katima Mulilo.

This, he said, are a few of the planned projects to develop the Zambezi region and create much-needed jobs.

Activities at the Kalimbeza Rice Project came to a halt a few years ago, after the Agricultural Business Development Agency (Agribusdev) – which was entrusted to run the government’s green schemes – was dissolved by the agriculture ministry due to mismanagement.

Prior to that, the government spent about N$50 million on equipment and other necessities on the farm.

Meanwhile, Kalimbeza Rice Project manager Patrick Kompeli says as part of the N$8 million allocated to the project by the government, a total of 38 hectares (ha) of rice was planted, of which 30ha was for ‘irriga’ rice and 8ha for ‘supa’ rice.

He says 77 tonnes of irriga rice was harvested, alongside 24 tonnes of supa rice.

Kompeli says the project aims to produce more rice to stop the importation of rice from South Africa into Namibia, and the funds will further be used to expand land for rice cultivation.

He says a feasibility study is currently being done to expand the land. This, he says, includes the topographic land survey and design to level the fields, and the upgrading of the pump station.

“The consultant will submit a report with the findings and recommendations around August,” he says.

Kompeli says the N$8 million does not include the setting up of a sugar plantation on a section of the rice farm or the establishment of a sugar processing plant at Katima Mulilo.

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