Wezi Tjaronda
21 August 2008
Windhoek — Meatco's Ekwatho Financing Scheme is on track in achieving the purchase of 30 000 cattle in 30 months, Meatco's Chief Executive Officer Kobus du Plessis has said.
Since November last year until now, close to 8 000 cattle from 64 approved applicants have been procured. The first 250 slaughter cattle from the project were delivered to Meatco recently. The target for this year alone is 10 000 cattle.
The project aims to provide farmers with financial and technical assistance to produce slaughter-ready cattle and to counter the large volumes of weaners that leave the country on the hoof with no value added to them.
This will also address the meat exporter's dwindling numbers of cattle delivered at its abattoirs.
Du Plessis said at the launch of the scheme yesterday that the company was at risk as a result of the low volumes and it was critical that the project succeeds.
So far, Bank Windhoek, First National Bank, Standard Bank Namibia, Nedbank and Agribank have signed agreements with Meatco to finance the scheme.
While the main beneficiaries of the scheme are weaner producers as they have an alternative market to sell their animals, animal feed manufacturers, financiers, marketing agents, veterinarians, transporters and production input suppliers will also benefit in the value chain.
Some beneficiaries of the project however say the financing scheme should not be an end in itself because farmers face challenges due to the country 's environment.
Rick Kukuri, now a full-time farmer, said finances were not good enough in the absence of technical skills on the part of the farmers.
"We have a challenging environment which the scheme does not address. The scheme does not address all the needs," he said, mentioning the old infrastructure on farms, feed and fuel, whose prices have increased tremendously.
If partners in the agriculture sector do not come in to assist, Kukuri said, farmers would not stay.
"Let us come in and assist to reduce the costs so that we don't chase away those that want to come in. We don't want to get out in five years but to establish a sector which is a pillar of the economy," he said.
He urged the Government to come up with the right policies in the interest of 70 percent of the country's population who derive their livelihood from agriculture.
Another farmer who is part of the scheme, Andrew Deacon, said with livestock now being a balance sheet asset, their farming enterprises would improve.
"There is no need to sell premature cattle due to financial pressures," he said.
Ekwatho Project Manager Heiner Böhme said the project would apart from decreasing the number of weaner exports, improve the turnover of the abattoirs and improve the viability of faming enterprises.
He said financing was required for farmers to increase the number of cattle on farms, instead of leasing their land.
Weaner producers were coming back to ox production, farmers in the south were purchasing cattle to use the grass on their farms while other farmers were debushing their farms. Others however have joined the scheme to get production data Meatco provides, Böhme said.
Project Ekwatho is derived from an Oshiwambo word okukwathera, which means to assist.
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