Governor consults on reviving Uvhungu-Vhungu dairy

As part of plans to revive the government’s idle Uvhungu-Vhungu dairy farm in the Kavango East region, governor Hamunyera Hambyuka recently visited the indigenous-owned Travena Dairy in the Omaheke region for consultations.

He was accompanied by Kavango East Regional Council chairperson Stefanus Sinonge and Rundu Rural constituency councillor Paulus Mbangu.

Hambyuka said about 70% of the work to resuscitate the dairy, which has been a white elephant for 16 years, is complete.

His visit to Travena Dairy aimed to seek assistance in acquiring dairy cows for Uvhungu-Vhungu and to discuss industry best practices.

“We have done the de-bushing and rehabilitated some of the equipment but we are still to connect to the electricity grid and upgrade the water infrastructure.

“We have started consultations with private companies to explore possibilities of having joint ventures to operate the dairy,” he said.

The governor said about N$160 million would be needed to resuscitate the idle dairy project to create jobs for the local people as well as contribute to food security.

Hambyuka was supported by prime minister Elijah Ngurare, who said the Uvhungu-Vhungu dairy farm must become operational as soon as possible.

“Whatever needs to be done must be done to ensure it will be operational this year still. We want a proper road map,” Ngurare recently said.

He said he wanted to see women and young people employed at the dairy farm.

Travena Dairies operations manager Frans Murangi after the visit said they have discussed challenges in the sector, market access and capacity development to revive Uvhungu-Vhungu.

He said Namibia has a small population of 3 000 dairy cows, with about 1 500 at Mariental’s super farm.

“We have 236 and the rest can be found in small pockets at various farms,” Murangi said, adding that most dairy cows have been sold to Botswana and Angola as farmers abandoned the sector, leading to a collapse due to poor producer prices.

He said the best option to rebuild the national dairy herd quickly in view of the foot-and-mouth disease threat, mainly from South Africa, is to import good genetics and do artificial insemination in the country.

Murangi said Namibia imports around 30 000 litres of fresh milk a week from South Africa, thereby helping to subsidise the farmers in that country.

He said Namibia is an arid country, making feed and fuel expensive, which contributes to high costs that make operations in the sector unsustainable.

Murangi said because of challenges at Travena Dairies, including the double allocation of the farm and little room for expansion, they had made a proposal to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Land Reform to be resettled on the 4 000 hectare Kehero Stud near Witvlei.

“We intend establishing a national dairy production training and genetic improvement hub. Should our proposal be granted, we would be in a better position to assist with the revival of the Uvhungu-Vhungu project,” he said.

Murangi said besides the training centre, they would produce fodder and increase the farm herd to 800 cows as well as breed cows for other farmers in the country.

He also said they will revive supplying free fresh milk to schools in the region who are now receiving imported powdered milk instead.

“We have already been selling cows to small-scale farmers wanting to join the sector under the Dairy Value Development Scheme where the farmer pays 40% and the government pays 60%,” he said.

– matthew@namibian.com.na

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