Kavango east: The farm manager of the Vhungu Vhungu Green Scheme in the Kavango East Region, Floris Smith, says the farm expects to harvest between 1,900 and 2,000 tonnes of maize this season despite challenges caused by electricity problems and storm damage last month.

According to Namibia Press Agency, Smith made the remarks during an interview on Tuesday, highlighting how the farm had planted maize on all 311 hectares for the first time. Heavy rains and strong winds last month, however, destroyed about 40 hectares of the crop.

Smith noted that while the farm anticipates a good harvest, losses are inevitable due to power supply interruptions and the recent storms. He expressed concerns about continued rainfall, with 3.1 mm recorded on Tuesday, potentially impacting crop quality and causing some maize to rot.

The strong winds had flattened large sections of maize shortly before harvest, rendering machine use impossible in certain areas, according to Smith. Consequently, two damaged centre pivots necessitated a switch to manual harvesting, incurring unplanned extra labor costs.

'We have started harvesting the storm-damaged maize by hand, with 60 casual workers currently in the fields,' Smith said. He added that threshing of the hand-harvested maize would commence once the rain ceases, as efforts continue to salvage as much of the crop as possible.

Moisture and sand contamination in some fields remain a concern, but Smith expressed hope that the maize quality will still meet the required standard.