Namibia Special Risks Insurance Association (Nasria) Managing Director Ndjoura Tjozongoro has said they are open to suggestions on how to better communicate with farmers on the new Agriculture Insurance Scheme.
This is after local farmers cautiously welcomed news of the scheme and said they would require clarity on what the product entails and how much it will cost.
Nasria recently announced that the scheme will start with a pilot project in November in the Hardap, Omaheke, Otjozondjupa, Ohangwena and Oshana regions.
It will provide crop and livestock farmers with long-term protection against natural disasters, amongst others providing crop and livestock farmers restock animals lost due to severe droughts or epidemics, protecting farmers against animal death or disability; and facilitating credit support in the farming sector from financial lending institutions as it can be used for collateral security.
A number of farmers told Nampa while it appears to be a good idea, they will need more information on the product.
NAMPA
2 (ALGIERS, 09 OCT, AFP) – French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne starts a visit to Algeria today with a top-level delegation, pushing for better ties with the former French colony and major gas exporter.
Her two-day trip along with 16 ministers — over a third of her government — comes just six weeks after President Emmanuel Macron concluded a three-day visit aimed at ending months of tensions with Algiers.
Borne is expected to sign deals on economic cooperation, including energy — although deliveries of natural gas to France are ‘not on the table’, according to her office.
Ties between the North African country and its former colonial ruler had seen months of tensions after Macron last year questioned Algeria’s existence as a nation before the French occupation, accusing the government of fomenting ‘hatred towards France’.
But during his visit in August, Macron and his Algerian counterpart Abdelmadjid Tebboune drew a line under the spat, declaring a ‘new, irreversible dynamic of progress’.
AFP
3 (VIENNA, 09 OCT, AFP) – Austrians were voting today in a presidential election expected to return incumbent Alexander Van der Bellen, seen as a beacon of stability as the Alpine country struggles with an energy crisis and inflation.
Campaigning on a slogan of ‘clarity’ and ‘stability’, Van der Bellen is widely tipped to clinch a second mandate, with his six challengers — all men — lagging far behind.
‘It would be nice if we had clarity today — nice for Austria, nice for us –, if we can then fully concentrate on the diverse tasks ahead, the multitude of crises… that we in Austria, in Europe, are facing,’ the 78-year-old economics professor said after casting his ballot in central Vienna.
Polls put the pro-European liberal as securing more than 50 per cent of the vote, thus avoiding a run-off.
Some 6.4 million people are eligible to cast their ballots from the European Union country’s total population of nine million.
AFP
4 (MAIMANA, 09 OCT, XINHUA) – Unknown armed men have gunned down an official with the provincial administration in Afghanistan’s northern Faryab province, provincial head for information and culture Mawlawi Shamsudin Mohammadi said today.
According to the official, Qari Abdul Rahman, the director of the economic commission of Faryab province, was on the way to his residence when came under attack in Qaisar district yesterday and lost his life on the spot.
Without providing more details, Mawlawi Mohammadi said an investigation has been initiated into the case.
This is the first time that a provincial administration official comes under attack in northern Faryab province and its vicinity since the Taliban’s taking over power in August 2021. No group or individual has claimed responsibility yet.
XINHUA
5 (JERUSALEM, 09 OCT, AFP) – Israeli forces today hunted a Palestinian suspected of killing an 18-year-old military policewoman in east Jerusalem, an attack that left another Israeli in critical condition from a gunshot wound to the head.
The shooting at a checkpoint by the Palestinian refugee camp of Shuafat in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem came amid spiralling violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Hours earlier, two Palestinian teenagers were shot dead in an Israeli raid in the West Bank, as the United Nations warned that ‘mounting violence’ in the occupied Palestinian territory was ‘fuelling a climate of fear, hatred and anger’.
Police said the alleged Shuafat gunman, a 22-year-old Palestinian resident of east Jerusalem, was driven to the checkpoint by an accomplice. He got out of the car, opened fire and ran into the camp as the driver sped away.
The dead Israeli soldier was identified as Noa Lazar.
Source: The Namibian Press Agency
