Nearly 40 farmers from commercial and resettlement farms of the Otjiwarongo district held a daylong meeting here Thursday to discuss, prepare and outline preventative methods they would use to confront veld fire outbreaks in and around their farms.

The meeting was organised by the department of forestry in the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism.

Deputy Director for the division of forestry and veld fire control, Michael ||Otsub facilitated the discussions and the formal presentations that were made at the meeting.

||Otsub reminded farmers to earnestly participate at the meeting as it is them that would first become victims when grazing is lost due to veld fire.

He said farm properties, livestock, wild animals and probably injuries are normally observed when veld fires strike the farmers.

In 2021 alone, ||Otsub said, about 1 234 veld fires were recorded in the country by his division, excluding others which were not reported.

“Approximately 3,5 million hectares of farmland was destroyed, plus a loss of more than 600 livestock and wild animals which were killed by the veld fires in 2021,” he said.

||Otsub singled out Otjozondjupa, Kunene, Oshikoto, Kavango East and Omusati to be the largely affected regions on annual basis, while Erongo is least.

He attributed charcoal burning, dumping of burning cigarette leftovers, fires from recreational places and traditional means of harvesting honey bees to be the main sources of veld fires.

||Otsub urged farmers to create cut lines in and around their farms and also to conduct regular trainings on effective ways one would confront fire when it is windy.

He also spoke of the benefits of purchasing firefighting tools on the farm, equipping a farmer’s vehicle with firefighting tools and the purchasing of two-way radios for communication with other neighbouring farmers in case of a fire outbreak.

Farmers also discussed the importance of widening the private roads in and around their farms for firefighting water tankers and also keeping farm gates open during a fire outbreak.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency