05 Mar 2019

Good infrastructure helps facilitate commodity based trade (CBT) concept, which aims at bringing economic benefits to farmers.

CBT is an array of alternatives that could be used to ensure the production and processing of a particular commodity were managed so that identified food safety and animal health hazards would be reduced to appropriate risk levels.

The concept, which was adopted in Ngamiland, was expected to secure lucrative market for Ngamiland beef.

In an effort to comply with the CBT principles, the United Nation Development Programme (UNDP) injected half a million pula towards rehabilitation of quarantine system in order to facilitate CBT. 

In the past, farmers used the quarantines to slaughter animals for the South African market, but they became ineffective and deteriorated during the outbreak of Cattle Lung Disease. It was reported that the quarantine, which had nine paddocks used to accommodate 10 000 animals for 30 days until they were graded and slaughtered.

An official from the Department of Veterinary Services, Ms Wanani Malumbela appreciated the support from UNDP, noting that the money was used to purchase buffer cable, to dig some trenches and for water reticulation among others. The buffer cable and trenches are meant to prevent elephants from damaging the quarantine fence.

She revealed this during a site visit at Makalamabedi quarantine by a group of stakeholders from Maun and Ghanzi, who were on a mission to appreciate the quarantine status.

In addition, she said they had not installed watering tanks and some equipment because of theft, adding that the work would only be done when farmers are ready to bring cattle to the facility.

She thanked UNDP for complementing the efforts by Ministry of Agricultural Development and Food Security to revive the quarantine system in Ngamiland to engage in CBT. 

“Now the facility is in good shape and ready to receive animals any time and we believe that if the farmers utilise the quarantine, the district could end up producing Foot and Mouth Disease free product,” she added.

Ms Malumbela revealed that through CBT, the district aimed to produce the best quality meat, which could be marketable. The concept, she said was farmers centric, noting that the CBT concept would not stop Foot and Mouth Disease, hence the farmers should play their role in controlling the disease.

Meanwhile, Ms Malumbela said the project contributed meaningfully to the livelihoods of communities as it created more employment opportunities. Since the rehabilitation of the quarantine, she said they managed to hire over 200 people.

UNDP official, Mr Innocent Magole said they supported the discussion to engage in CBT because they believed that it was the way to go in Ngamiland, hence they channeled some funds to augment the ministry’s efforts to rehabilitate the quarantine.

He also noted that initially Namibia did not want the meat from a FMD area to pass through to Angola and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) market, but UNDP played a key role to negotiate with Namibia.  “This is an achievement for our district as we had secured a lucrative market in DRC,” he said. ENDS