Clash over fodder

The agriculture ministry is being accused of frustrating and delaying research into cardboard-based fodder at Oshikuku in the Omusati Region.The ministry says it is not satisfied with the research station at Oshikuku and is demanding that trials be carried out at the Omatjene Agricultural Research Centre, west of Otjiwarongo, to assess the feed composition in terms of energy, protein, mineral and wax content. Ministry executive director Percy Misika said it could not approve the research study into the factory manufacturing of animal feed from cardboard boxes at Oshikuku, because it is not satisfied that the feed where the study was conducted is suitable and sufficiently effective for the intended purpose. After securing funding and technical support from the Local Economic Development Agency (LEDA) of the urban and rural development ministry, food technologist Roderick Haraseb started conducting a study on the manufacture of animal feed from discarded cardboard boxes, which he said gained positive responses from South African laboratories.Haraseb said the agriculture ministry has never taken the study seriously and never wanted to be involved.Only now that he would like to register the feed, the ministry wants to be involved. He said the ministry never visited his research station or set any standards for him to comply with.“Around April 2017, when we started, I approached the ministry's department that deals with registrations, asking for the standards to be used at our research centre, and they told me just to go ahead because there are no standards. We came back and started with the research. We made use of state veterinarians to inspect the animals all the time,” explained Haraseb. “After we started, we made a presentation to the ministry on the overview of the whole project. There was a request from their side that they will come visit the site and we had an agreement that they were coming. They never came to visit our centre, until they sent us a letter that based on what they have seen from the presentation on the project, it will not work.” Haraseb produces animal feed from cardboard boxes and spent six months, from the end of April to October 2017, strictly feeding two cows and two goats with the new feed. In February last year the animals were slaughtered and post-mortems were conducted. Haraseb said it was established that the feed is able to nourish animals better than grass and lucerne. According to Misika, on 2 August last year, Haraseb submitted an application for the registration of the farm feed, after he presented the study to the ministry's management.“On 13 September last year, the agriculture ministry informed Haraseb that his application was not successful, due to the fact that the registrar of farm feed was not satisfied that the farm feed where the study was conducted was suitable and sufficiently effective for the intended purpose, as an animal feed with all the necessary nutrients,” said Misika. “However, Haraseb was advised to do a presentation to the ministry's animal scientists and specialists, which he did. During that presentation there were number of issues that were raised, such as his experiment design, the uniformity of the animals used in the trials and the lack of a clear hypothesis. “Recommendations were made that Haraseb liaises with one of the ministry's animal scientists to relook at the experiment design and formulate a new one, while considering the animal uniformity to be used in the trials.” Misika added the ministry was ready to avail facilities, such as an intensive feeding system, animals and assistance in terms of labour. He said in the meantime, Haraseb approached the ministry's top management for a meeting. “In this meeting an instruction was given that the ministry, jointly (with Haraseb) carry out trials at the Omatjene Research Station. Before the commencement of the joint trials, it was imperative to assess the feed (cardboard boxes) composition, in terms of energy content, protein content, minerals and wax content. “Hence, this year, on 17 January, the ministry wrote to Haraseb, requesting him to submit 10kg of raw cardboard boxes and a 10kg feed sample of the final product. The ministry is still waiting on Haraseb to submit the samples, as requested this year,” Misika said.He said the ministry welcomes research around introducing new agricultural products, as well as studies aimed at adding value to the agriculture sector. However, such products/research findings must be tested and verified, either by independent accredited laboratories or by the ministry. Haraseb, a food technology graduate of the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, said the ministry is not being clear enough. “The delays are there because the ministry is not clear as to what they want to be tested and who will fund it, as we do not have money, and that is why I could not carry on with the retests. I don't even know why they want to do a retest, if some of the testing was done by their veterinarians and they have all the data. “This is not scientific research, but a product development study… the scope of references is available and can be verified. If there is no standard, what else are they going to retest?” Haraseb asked. ILENI NANDJATO

Clash over fodder

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Namibian Sun 2025-06-18

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Clash over fodder

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Namibian Sun 2025-06-18

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