The Executive Director of the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Land Reform, Percy Misika, has said northern communal farmers should get involved in the running of projects introduced to benefit them.

Misika made these remarks on Tuesday during the inception workshop on support of the livestock sector in the northern communal areas that took place at the Omusati Regional Council’s premises.

In a statement availed to Nampa, Misika said there are complaints that livestock farmers in the northern communal areas are being left behind, yet when projects are introduced for all farming communities to benefit, there is little effort from the communities to participate.

“Namibians should hold hands as a nation to make a success in the farming sector and contribute to economy building,” he said.

The executive director added that access to markets is another strategy the ministry wants to aggressively pursue and there is support from Government to enter into agreements so that procurement of meat and meat products is made a reality, especially for abattoirs in the northern communal areas.

“We sent a delegation to Ghana and Congo-Brazzaville that managed to introduce Namibia as a potential source of meat exports to these countries. Further discussions are needed to finalise trade agreements with these countries. Surely, this is something to embrace wholeheartedly and the farmers should seriously look at producing for the export markets in the near future,” said Misika.

He further noted that the ministry is trying to improve on veterinary service delivery by controlling foot-and-mouth disease, which has distressed the economy.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency