Man donates 30 fruit tree seedlings to Oluno Primary School

A young man from Okatale village in the Oshana region, Martin Ambunda, recently donated thirty fruit tree seedlings to Oluno Primary School at Ondangwa.

Speaking at the handover event, Ambunda said the donation is to help encourage the school to produce fruit and teach the pupils the importance of environmental protection.

He said Oluno Primary School has in recent years been buying seedlings from him, so this time around, he decided to give back to the school.

At their home in Okatale village, Ambunda owns the Ambunda Agricultural Farm, which has a vegetable garden, a nursery, an orchard as well as poultry.

In the nursery, he produces seedlings for various fruit trees such as guava, mango, lemon, pawpaw, avocado, neem, tumeric, sweet potatoes, chilli, ginger, mint, marula, parsley, moringa, sugar cane, granadilla and hibiscus.

He said he has previously donated plant seedlings to schools to encourage reforestation and afforestation in Namibia in general.

Oluno Primary School principal Kristian Auene says the trees not only produce fruit, they also make the environment beautiful and produce oxygen.

He thanks Ambunda for the donation, adding that Ambunda has become a friend of their school.

Teacher Erastus Teofilus, who has studied agriculture and natural science, says the fruit trees donated by Ambunda ties in with what he has studied and he will help the school in ensuring that these trees are taken care off.

He says apart from the fruit trees, the school has a garden but the production of vegetables has been hampered by the lack of shade nets.

Teofilus says the school is making efforts to reach out to donors to help them with shade nets for the garden.

Ambunda said he believes his efforts can help contribute to food security in Namibia.

Last year, Ambunda was one of 40 young people who attended the two-day Leadership and Climate Change Youth Camp held at the Okatyali Biodiversity Campsite and Multipurpose Centre.

During the event, he said when Covid-19 hit Namibia, he saw how Namibians were dependent on South Africa for agricultural products such as vegetables.

“Vegetables become very expensive and scarce because the supply chain was interrupted by the closing of the borders. Therefore, I decided to produce vegetables in an effort to contribute to government efforts in making Namibia food self-food sufficient,” he said.

Ambunda can be reached at: 081 459 4994.