The long road to have farmers in the Northern Communal Areas enjoy economic benefits from the lucrative meat exports has finally started with budget documents showing that the Ministry of Agriculture,
Water and Forestry has budgeted N$328 million over the next three years for the construction of a veterinary cordon fence along the border with Angola.
Part of the money will also be used to upgrade other related veterinary fences in the country.
Animal diseases including Foot and Mouth Disease and Lung Sickness in areas bordering Angola means that for many years, cattle from areas north of Oshivelo have been left out of the lucrative European export market.
Farmers in the area are also prohibited from exporting cattle to South Africa on the hoof.
Meat processing and marketing company, Meatco, says it welcomes the plan to set up the fence on the border with Angola.
“It is something that we welcome, if it is going to happen this time around,” Vehaka Tjimune, Meatco’s Executive of Stakeholder Relations and Corporate Affairs, said.
Tjimune said once the fence is in place, Namibia could start engaging the World Organisation for Animal Health to make the Northern Communal Areas a disease free zone. The NCA includes northern Namibia, the two Kavango regions and the Zambezi Region.
He said this would mean that animals could move freely between the southern and northern regions and animals in those areas could be slaughtered for exports.
Chief Veterinary Officer in the agriculture ministry, Dr Milton Masake, told the Windhoek Observer that a lot of consultations still need to be done with communities that will be affected by the fence before it is erected.
“It can start as early as next week; it can start as early as next year. At least for now we have the ‘political buy in,’ we need to start mobilising the communities and start sanitising them on the decision and that this is a revisable thing.”
Masake said the ministry will also need to invest in the design of the fence, a feasibility study and an environmental impact study. “We hope to do all these things in the 2018/19 financial year. But I cannot foresee the fence being erected in one financial year,” Maseke said.
He said the mandate given to his department is to start with 50km of the 400km stretch, adding that the speed of the erection of the fence will depend on the communities’ acceptance.
Maseke estimates that the NCA areas have a population of 1,2 million herds of cattle of the 2,4 million estimated cattle in Namibia. “It’s an area with a wealth of livestock, if we can add value to those animals, we can empower the communities.”
The so-called Red Line at Oshivelo will become obsolete if the proposed fence is effective.
“Whether the fence remains, will depend on how you intend to control diseases outbreaks in the future. It is always good to have structures in place, which you can rely on in cases of outbreaks.”
Livestock Producers Organisation (LPO) figures for 2017 show that livestock producers contributed 45 percent of the total agricultural income for the year and earned N$3,4 billion from the sale of cattle, an increase of N$1,4 billion compared to the N$2 billion earned by cattle sales in 2016.
According to the LPO, a total of 421,000 cattle were marketed last year, of which 313,000 were exported to South African feedlots and 107,000 slaughtered locally.