WINDHOEK – Namibia’s leading farmers’ unions are requesting an urgent meeting with agricultural minister Alpheus !Naruseb this week to inform him of the severity of the 2019 drought after two of the unions compiled an emergency action plan last Friday to reduce the impact of the drought, already a national crisis.
The Namibia Emerging Commercial Farmers’ Union (NECFU) and the Namibia Agricultural Union (NAU) say in a joint statement that the ultimate goal is to have the Namibia National Farmers Union (NNFU) also present at the meeting with the minister to provide initial proposals on how to mitigate the impact of the drought. According to the action plan, the agricultural ministry and the Meat Board of Namibia (MBN) will urgently plead for the removal of all policies restricting the export of livestock to minimise financial and livestock losses. The unions will also ask the government for an emergency fund to help with the implementation of a marketing incentive scheme to encourage farmers to sell their livestock to reduce the impact on natural rangelands.