A two-day meeting on activities and future plans of the Namibia National Farmers Union (NNFU) is underway in Tsumeb, where union members are also set to discuss the effects of the drought.
Speaking to nbc News on the sidelines of the meeting, union president Adolf Muremi said the drought is threatening livelihoods and food security for the people.
Under the National Development Plan 5 (NDP5), agriculture and food security are identified as critical to economic development.
However, this is now under threat due to drought.
Muremi says farmers’ unions will hold sessions to discuss ways to mitigate the effects of the drought.
“First of all, we engaged various stakeholders, especially government stakeholders, especially even on the declaration of the drought. We were with the office of the Prime Minister, the office of the Ministry of Agriculture. So we engaged them on the criteria, especially on the drought incentives, of which we can see the government has listened, and so on. In addition, as a union, we also sensitise our farmers to breed livestock that are drought resistant, and we have also encouraged farmers who are dealing with crops to have crop resistance seeds that can assist also during the drought and so on.”
Muremi also applauded the Ministry of Environment for reviewing the human-wildlife conflict compensation plan, adding engagements are still on with other ministries to better the lives of farmers.
“The Ministry of Environment, for example, we have engaged them. For example, with this issue of human wildlife conflict, of which you can see there is a bit of change in the policies, especially when it comes to the side of animals for the affected farmers. So the other ones, let’s say, for example, we have engaged the ministry of finance and agriculture on the issue of equalisation funds; we have engaged them on the issue of the code of good practice that started with the office of the Prime Minister. So for now, all those engagements are important for the benefit of the farmers.”
The meeting will also have feedback sessions on challenges facing the farmers across the country, discussions of the Union’s 2023-2024 financial reports, 2023 Congress resolutions, and the 2024-2025 strategic plan implementation progress.