Govt urges unity among farmers ELLANIE SMIT While the agricultural sector is facing its most challenging year in decades, the government has appealed to the farmers’ unions representing communal and commercial farmers to merge.
Speaking at the Agri-Outlook Conference hosted by the Namibia Agricultural Union (NAU) recently, Vice-President Nickey Iyambo told commercial farmers that there should be one union in the agricultural sector.
He said it was time for the separate unions to join and represent all farmers.
The two biggest agricultural unions in the country are the NAU, which caters to commercial farmers and is also the mother organisation for associations like the Livestock Producers’ Organisation, while the Namibia National Farmers Union (NNFU) represents communal and emerging farmers. There are also smaller associations that specifically cater to the needs of emerging farmers.
“We cannot afford to be divided when we are aiming for the same thing,” said Iyambo.
He added a single union would make things easier for the government in terms of funding.
Politician and farmer Dr Ben Amathila, who also spoke at the conference, said farmers could not continue doing things on their own.
“We are divided as farmers in different unions and that also divides where government puts the resources,” he said.
Budget constraints were a major topic at the NAU congress following a decision that the government would phase out the levies paid to the unions by the Meat Board of Namibia.
The NAU said it expects to make a loss of more than N$3 million in the 2017/18 financial year. Several strategies to decrease this loss were discussed.
The NAU said that cutting its income would have a negative influence on agriculture’s contribution to the gross domestic product.
Participants asked where the former Meat Board levies would go in future.