Firing up the biomass sector

Namibia faces significant challenges in terms of bush encroached on land, with estimates of 45 million hectares that are affected by this national phenomenon.

According to the Namibia Biomass Industry Group (N-BiG), to turn this challenge into an opportunity requires innovation and partnership.

In its joint efforts to showcase the present solutions to the bush encroachment problem and take the Namibian biomass industry forward, N-BiG organised the first-ever demonstration day for the public and key roleplayers in the biomass sector on 20 October at the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) outside Otjiwarongo.

The event was held in partnership with the De-bushing Advisory Service (DAS) and the Namibia Charcoal Association (NCA).

More than 400 people attended, comprising of a diverse group of representatives from the biomass sector that included harvesters, producers, communal and commercial farmers, members of the public, as well as old and young entrepreneurs.

“The aim of this gathering was to support improved linkages among those within the biomass sector and entrepreneurs offering the services and technologies in Namibia, as well as in neighbouring countries,” said Progress Kashandula, general manager at DAS.

Kashandula said it was encouraging to see that some farmer cooperatives and farmer associations were so eager to learn from the event that they travelled to the CCF and camped from the early morning hours until the gates opened.

“We are encouraged to see this commitment and demand for knowledge from our communal farmers.”

The full day of technology demonstrations showcased over 33 technologies from 29 exhibitors and over 15 live demonstrations. These demonstrations and exhibitions included technology for bush-to-animal feed, firewood, woodchips, retort charcoal, compressed firewood, manual harvesting, semi-mechanised harvesting, fully-mechanised harvesting and drones.

The live demonstrations were pragmatic, as farmers preferred seeing the demonstrations in real life.

“One truth in Namibia is that seeing is believing. Many farmers see brochures and videos but they do not believe it until they can see it in action. That is what this event is about; we tried to bring together the farmers, SMEs and entrepreneurs to dispose of the brochure and sales talks, to see the equipment in action for themselves,” said general manager of N-BiG, Colin Lindeque.

Vemuna Hengari and Kamaheke Kahuure, who farm in the Omaheke Region, said the technologies for harvesting and the making charcoal and biochar were most informative for them.

“We are already going to start making small changes when we get back to the farm, in how we cut the fire paths on our land, based on what we learned here today. We also saw the different types of kilns and retorts for making charcoal, the event showed us many possibilities and we'll be back next year!”

For young Namibian academics, the Biomass Technology Demonstration Day (BTDD) also provided a platform to exhibit their research projects, one of which proposes a hydraulic cutter for Namibia-specific species of encroacher bush.

The BTDD will be a regular feature in Namibia's annual calendar and Willem Groenewald, a member of the NCA, with over 20 years of experience in de-bushing, welcomed this.

He said the BTDD opens up many avenues for the sector to become better organised.

“I see that the main bush-based value chains for Namibia to develop are the two for charcoal production and bush-to-animal feed.”

Lindeque said the event was designed to build momentum towards a bio-economy in Namibia and to foster inclusivity and networking among existing and future roleplayers.

“We welcome anyone to join the industry group, who sees a future for themselves in turning bush encroachment from a problem into a viable economic opportunity… we at N-BiG welcome this diversity and are already making space for growth at next year's event!”



ELLANIE SMIT