Prime Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila says the government is looking into farmers’ requests for livestock support programmes as part of the drought relief efforts.
The Premier was responding to Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) MP Diederik Vries, who questioned the government about the alleged discrimination against farmers who started moving to new grazing areas before the first of this month.
Most farmers had started moving to new grazing areas in March of this year, and the government was expected to start with the rollout of drought relief food and monetary incentives to farmers by the first of July.
Farmers who were supposed to submit their claims for grazing leases were turned away because the subsidy is only applicable to those who started moving on July 1.
The Office of the Prime Minister, through the Disaster Risk Fund, outlined that the long-term strategy of the government’s livestock support programme is to improve the performance of the livestock value chain within mainstream supply channels and help farmers develop resilience against the growing challenges of climate change.
Kuugongelwa-Amadhila said her office is working to address these concerns.
“The government has been made aware of these concerns and has decided to consider them by specifically acquainting themselves with the number of people that are involved, like the claims that are there, that go back to an earlier date than October, and the cost implications, so that it can take a decision to ensure that the objectives of the drought relief programme are realised, which are actually to ensure that nobody dies of hunger and that we protect our livestock as much as possible so that farmers will be able to continue with farming next year.”
She also explained the objective of the Livestock Marketing Incentive Programme, which aims to reduce pressure on limited grazing by encouraging farmers to destock where grazing is poor.
Kuugongelwa-Amadhila reiterated that the drought support programme system will enable the issuance of vouchers to identify beneficiaries instead of transporting food by truck to different parts of the country.
“We now provide them vouchers so that they can redeem them at the local retail shops, therefore reducing the cost of logistics for distributing the drought relief but also supporting the local retailers, who then have an increased clientele because of this drought relief programme.”
The Premier also called on corporates to support the drought relief programme.
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