Kalimbeza project dormant for two years
The last time the project got substantial funding was in 2014 when it received N$5 million from government.
The Kalimbeza Rice Project in the Zambezi Region has no money to run its operations and has been dormant for the last two years. The farm has not planted rice due to, among others, disconnected electricity, non-payment of employee salaries, lack of fuel, uneven fields and wrecked equipment.
The last time the project got substantial funding was in 2014, when it received N$5 million from government. The planting of rice at the farm will only resume this coming August.
“The Kalimbeza Rice Project is a green scheme that is underfunded. That's the main problem,” the governor of Zambezi, Lawrence Sampofu, told Nampa.“Initially, 4 000 hectares of land was given for that project by the traditional authority. Then it was reduced to 200 hectares. Since then, we have been able to plough 40 to 60 hectares only [of rice], [that is] not even half of the land given [for that purpose],” Sampofu said.
The farm's manager, Patrick Kompeli, said the lack of funding has had detrimental effects on the green scheme's potential to transform into a premier rice producer. “If you don't have the funds to buy the inputs, the fertilisers, pesticides [and] diesel, there is no way you will be able to produce rice,” he said.
Worse and worse
Since 2015, the situation has worsened, he said.
“All these years, we have been planting through difficulties. In 2014, the project was allocated an amount of N$5 million [from the ministry of agriculture]. That is the money we were using all along [since then]. And that money eventually finished. The next year [2015], we didn't get anything,” he added. They were unable to plant rice in 2019 due to the fact that electricity was cut off between September and December.
“So that time when the power was off, it was the time when we were supposed to start planting. So when we got the power back, it was already too late,” he said. So far, the project has 249 hectares of which 150 are suitable for rice cultivation. The project has 11 full-time employees and four agriculture students at the Zambezi Vocational Training Centre doing their internship there.
In 2015, Kalimbeza rice became fully commercialised, and 147 metric tons of rice from the project was dispatched into the local commercial market. In 2016, the farm produced 156 metric tons, while 104 tons were produced in 2017. In 2018, only 67 tons of rice were produced. Since then, nothing has been produced.
- Nampa
The last time the project got substantial funding was in 2014, when it received N$5 million from government. The planting of rice at the farm will only resume this coming August.
“The Kalimbeza Rice Project is a green scheme that is underfunded. That's the main problem,” the governor of Zambezi, Lawrence Sampofu, told Nampa.“Initially, 4 000 hectares of land was given for that project by the traditional authority. Then it was reduced to 200 hectares. Since then, we have been able to plough 40 to 60 hectares only [of rice], [that is] not even half of the land given [for that purpose],” Sampofu said.
The farm's manager, Patrick Kompeli, said the lack of funding has had detrimental effects on the green scheme's potential to transform into a premier rice producer. “If you don't have the funds to buy the inputs, the fertilisers, pesticides [and] diesel, there is no way you will be able to produce rice,” he said.
Worse and worse
Since 2015, the situation has worsened, he said.
“All these years, we have been planting through difficulties. In 2014, the project was allocated an amount of N$5 million [from the ministry of agriculture]. That is the money we were using all along [since then]. And that money eventually finished. The next year [2015], we didn't get anything,” he added. They were unable to plant rice in 2019 due to the fact that electricity was cut off between September and December.
“So that time when the power was off, it was the time when we were supposed to start planting. So when we got the power back, it was already too late,” he said. So far, the project has 249 hectares of which 150 are suitable for rice cultivation. The project has 11 full-time employees and four agriculture students at the Zambezi Vocational Training Centre doing their internship there.
In 2015, Kalimbeza rice became fully commercialised, and 147 metric tons of rice from the project was dispatched into the local commercial market. In 2016, the farm produced 156 metric tons, while 104 tons were produced in 2017. In 2018, only 67 tons of rice were produced. Since then, nothing has been produced.
- Nampa
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