The Agricultural Bank of Namibia hosted a four-day public training under the theme “Farmers’ Day Lecture” in July 2022. This insightful training was presented by Mr. Hanks Saisai, Technical Advisor: Crops & Poultry within Agribank’s Agri Advisory Services Division. The training ignited an interest and appreciation towards famers for mem which had led to my adventure to the Kavango East.

During a one-week trip to the Kavango East region, I had an impactful experience when I visited a few commercial farmers at the Sikondo, the Mashare Berries, Ndonga-Linena and Uvhungu Vhungu Irrigation Schemes. 

I also had brief encounters and discussion with the amazing people who are supporting subsistent farmers. Mr. Solomon Aisindi of the Ministry of Agriculture, Water & Land Reform, Mr. Paulus from the GIZ Namibia Soil Analysis Laboratory as well as Ms. Hulda of the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism in Rundu, who briefly explained how they render support to farmers through various methods, such as providing seeds and seedlings and offering training and technical support to household farmers. 

 During the trip, I also had a great privilege of meeting Mr. Twamanguruka Nghidinwa, the Farm manager at Sikondo Irrigation Scheme, where they grow wheat, onion, beetroot cabbage and maize. Mr. Nghidinwa is also the Founder & CEO for Fudlink, an ecommerce start-up company that links food producers with wholesalers and logistic service providers on a single online market (www.fudlink-africa.com). The start-up aims to solve market inaccessibility experienced by small scale farmers by providing an inclusive and reliable marketplace that make their produced food more visible and accessible to wholesalers and end-consumers.

 I also met Mr. Jan and Mr. Rolf at Mashare Berries who kindly educated me on farming with berries, i.e., the type of berries they have on the farm and methods of growing these berries. 

In addition, I had the privilege of meeting Mr. Ben, the Farm Manager at Shitemo Irrigation Scheme; Small scale commercial farmers, Mr. Boysen and Mr. Fillipus at Nonga Linena and Mr. Antonio at Uvhungu vhungu. Meeting the farmers was great but meeting the beautiful, extraordinary people of the Kavango East was even greater!