N$26 million bailout for AMTA

The Namibia Agronomic Board (NAB) will dip into its reserves that have been built up over more than a decade to grant a N$26 million bailout to the government agency responsible for buying crops from farmers.

The loss-making Agro Marketing and Trading Agency (AMTA) had by the beginning of this month depleted it funds for this year and halted all crop purchases from farmers.

Urgent meetings were held last week between the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry, AMTA and the Namibian Agronomic Board (NAB) in an effort to solve this crisis.

It was decided that N$26 million from the Agronomic Board's reserve funds would be allocated to AMTA.

The CEO of NAB, Christof Brock, said after a good rainy season and a bumper harvest, problems with cash flow and storage had been foreseen earlier this year already.

He said one of the solutions that were considered was to move some of Namibia's crops out of the region and then buy it back when it was needed.

However it was agreed that NAB would allocate three quarters of its reserves to the agency.

Brock said these savings had been built up over a period of 15 years.

He stressed that these funds should not be used for operational purposes at AMTA, but to buy crops from farmers in the communal areas.

Meanwhile, AMTA announced that it will also be venturing into the livestock sector. AMTA will administer a new lease agreement with the two operators managing abattoirs in the northern communal areas on behalf of the ministry and will be responsible for the maintenance of the abattoirs. The CEO of AMTA, Lungameni Lukas, explained that there is a separate account for the buying of grain and that this fund has been depleted since the beginning of August.

According to him AMTA has stopped buying all crops since then.

“This was a very urgent matter to solve and we approached the ministry.” He said as soon as the account has been updated they will resume buying from the farmers.

The permanent secretary in the ministry, Percy Misika, said the N$26 million bailout would make it possible for the government to procure the outstanding grain harvests in communal areas.

According to him Namibia's silos have a capacity of 22 900 tonnes while 4 000 tonnes were carried over from the previous year's harvest.

He said 3 000 tonnes of grain has already been bought and with the bailout AMTA would be able to buy 5 000 tonnes more.

Misika said it would discourage farmers to produce more crops if these outstanding crops were not bought.

“NAB will contribute from its reserve funds and ensure that these crops are bought. There is the possibility that the next rainy season may be another El Nino and if we are not buying what we produced, we will be plunged into food insecurity.”

The agriculture minister, John Mutorwa, said the point is that the government purchases what is produced so that the country can store it for future use.

“We started this programme of purchasing grains through AMTA. The budget line we gave AMTA has been depleted. The situation on the ground is that livestock and grain producers are demoralised and the government should be seen doing something.”

Referring to the economic situation in the country, he said farmers had complained to him that they were unable to sell their produce.

Earlier this year Namibian Sun reported that AMTA had recorded a net deficit of close to N$63 million in the year 2015/16.

The loss of N$62.7 million was N$59.5 million more than the previous year's loss of N$3.1 million.

ELLANIE SMIT