Namibia: Kunene South Show a Big Flop

Tuesday, August 30th, 2011 | Source: alexsamade(Posts by alexsamade)

Irene !hoaës

30 August 2011

Windhoek The Kunene South Regional Agricultural Show held at Khorixas last week has been described as a dismal failure by some farmers.

The show reportedly failed to attract both farmers and the public, as only one bull was entered in the large livestock category this year.

And to make matters worse, the popular small-stock sector was also under represented.

According to some farmers, apart from apathy among the farmers, the event was not well promoted or marketed and that is why only over 30 members of the Khorixas community attended the show.

In addition, representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry in the region who were also scheduled to speak at the event did not turn up for unexplained reasons.

The chairperson of the Welwitchia Regional Farmers Union, Clauss Haraeb, announced that the southern part of the Kunene region would not hold a regional agriculture show next year.

This is, according to Haraeb, due to the extreme low turnout of farmers to this year’s event.

He promised that the organising committee would not continue to waste funds on organising events that the farmers would not attend but would rather take the time to investigate the cause of the downfall of the regional shows in that region.

Meanwhile, the Communal Farmers Consortium (CFC), which sponsors the regional agricultural shows, said they would in future consider providing training for farmers’ associations in rural Namibia in events management in order to improve the standard of Agriculture Shows in Namibia.

It is evident now that most farmers’ associations lack skills in event and logistical management. The Communal Farmers Consortium agrees that the recently held regional agriculture show in Khorixas was below expectations but warns that it does not mean that there is no solution, the consortium said in a statement yesterday.

According to the CFC, cash contribution alone is not enough for the farmers’ associations to organise such events but there is a strong need for more exposure, stronger guidance and supervision in the day-to-day organisation of the Show Organising Committees in the regions.

The CFC has contributed N$480 000 towards the organisation of regional agricultural shows this year.

It considers to, in future, invest in inter-regional farmer’s exchanges, to allow farmers to get first-hand experience how other farmers’ associations organise their events.

This will also expose farmers to methods of preparing animals for exhibitions as opposed to the current practice of simply chasing animals from the veld into the kraals/pens for the show, the consortium stated.

The Communal Framers Consortium is a group of private and public companies that have decided to pool financial resources together to support rural agriculture associations in development activities such as the staging of agriculture shows and exhibitions.

The consortium comprises of Agribank, Agra, First National Bank of Namibia, Namibia Breweries Limited, Feed Master, Telecom Namibia, the Meat Corporation of Namibia, the Meat Board of Namibia and is coordinated by the Namibia National Farmers Union.

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Namibia: Kunene South Show a Big Flop(Namibia: Kunene South Show a Big Flop)

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