Orchard saga blooms again

After government spent millions on establishing 56 state orchards in the northern regions, the cash-strapped agriculture ministry abandoned them, leaving the trees to wither.During a town hall meeting at Omuthiya in the Oshikoto Region, where President Hage Geingob interacted with residents on Monday, farmers expressed their concern over why government would allow these orchards to dry and shrivel, instead of handing them over to community members to manage and operate them. The town hall meeting was hosted opposite the Omuthiya orchard, but the presidential delegation did not undertake a site visit to the project. Last year, the agriculture ministry terminated the contracts of about 200 workers who were employed at the 56 state orchards in the north. Abraham Shikongo, a member of the Oshikoto Farmers' Association, said a few years ago, when they started hearing rumours that the agriculture ministry could no longer afford to manage the orchards, they approached the forestry office in the region to lobby that they be given an opportunity to manage them, but this did not materialise.“As a farmers' union we tried to engage the forestry officials in the region, and even through our constituency councillors' offices, pleading for the ministry not to let go of the orchards caretakers, but hand them to us or to community members to continue with the work. “This engagement did not yield any fruitful results, as the officials told us they were waiting for answers from the director, and we were never given an opportunity, until we started seeing the plants drying,” said Shikongo.When asked by Geingob to respond, agriculture minister Alpheus !Naruseb said last year the director of forestry, Joseph Hailwa, undertook consultative visits to the regions to engage community members to take over the orchards. Hailwa had reported that the community members were not ready.“The government, through the ministry of agriculture, initiated the orchards in most parts of the country. I am not going to talk about why we are not able to continue with this project anymore, because the situation is known to us, that operational expenditure has been drastically cut because of obvious reasons,” !Naruseb said.He added that if the community members are now ready, “we can still come on the table”.Shikongo said the trees have already withered and that community members would only be willing to come on board now, if they can be assisted with water bill payments and money to buy essential tools. “The cost to maintain the drying trees will be higher than the time when we were asking them (to take over the orchards),” he said.In November 2017, agriculture executive director Percy Misika informed Namibian Sun that the 56 orchards cover 364 hectares and had generated an income of N$120 400 in the 2016/17 financial year, up from N$65 993 during the previous year.It was also reported that many of the workers who were taking care of the orchards were locals who loved their work. Earlier this year, Swapo Party Youth League (SPYL) secretary Ephraim Nekongo expressed his disappointment over the agriculture ministry terminating the contracts of the 200 orchard workers.In 2003, the government, through the agriculture ministry, launched the tree-planting project in open grasslands in the Ohangwena, Omusati, Oshana and Oshikoto regions, which created hundreds of jobs.The orchards were created with the purpose of supplying fresh fruit to the Agro-Marketing and Trade Agency (AMTA) for selling and processing.After the orchards were established it was ascertained that lemon, mango and guava trees were suitable for the areas. In 2014/15, 13 tonnes of mangoes, four tonnes of guavas, 1.5 tonnes of lemons and 0.24 tonnes of oranges were produced, which generated N$89 423. During 2015/16, 10 tonnes of mangoes, 0.72 tonnes of guavas, three tonnes of lemons and 0.6 tonnes of oranges were produced and N$65 993 was generated.In 2016/17 they harvested 17.3 tonnes of mangoes, two tonnes of guavas, 5.2 tonnes of lemons and 0.73 tonnes of oranges, generating N$120 405.ILENI NANDJATO

Orchard saga blooms again

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Namibian Sun 2025-07-15

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Orchard saga blooms again

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Namibian Sun 2025-07-15

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