Schlettwein slams agri enterprises for failure

Agriculture, water and land reform minister Calle Schlettwein says state-owned entities created to support the agriculture sector have failed to deliver.

He says they have instead become a burden to farmers.

These include the Meat Corporation of Namibia (Meatco), AgriBusDev, Agro Marketing And Trade Agency (Amta), the Agricultural Bank of Namibia, and the Namibia Industrial Development Agency.

Schlettwein said this while speaking at the 25th Bank of Namibia Annual Symposium, themed ‘Global Value Chains for Inclusive Development: How can Namibia position its Agricultural Sector?’, yesterday.

The symposium aims to discuss how agriculture can help Namibia achieve better economic growth and food security for everyone.

“Public industrialisation and marketing entities that were created with the correct intent to facilitate an economic transition towards value chain development and industrialisation in the agricultural sector, without exception, failed to deliver,” Schlettwein said.

“Meatco, AgiBusDev, Amta, Agribank, Nida, all had the mandate to support farmers and entrepreneurs, but unfortunately became a burden to them instead. Serious uncompetitiveness and mismanagement created financial constraints, which were rolled onto their farming clientele,” Schlettwein said.

He said the financial services sector, such as banks and insurance companies, offer costly products to the sector, where offerings are not always inclusive.

He added that the South African Customs Union hinders the country’s ambition to industrialise.

At the same platform, Bank of Namibia governor Johanness !Gawaxab called for reforms to support the agricultural sector.

!Gawaxab said part of these reforms would include empowering farmers through access to finance and providing support through infrastructure development for storage, processing, quality testing and value-addition.

“Financial inclusion provides farmers with economic empowerment, enabling participation in the market, growing and upscaling their businesses, increasing income and savings, coping with emergencies and meeting their obligations, both socially and economically,” !Gawaxab noted.

The bank’s research and financial sector development director, Emma Haiyambo, said the government should improve the ease of doing business and needs to find a solution to the issue of high electricity costs.

“The government should finalise long-standing bills and regulations to boost investor confidence.

The government should consider making importation of semi-skilled workers possible, especially for certain industries where there are limited skills,” she said.

However, Haiyambo said the agricultural sector has grown significantly in the last few years, introducing new products and increasing export destinations.

“A key challenge within the livestock sub-sector remains recurring drought and erratic rainfall, which have severe implications for the agricultural sector,” Haiyambo stated.

Food and Agriculture Organisation southern Africa sub-regional coordinator Patrice Takoukam says Namibia can benefit from investing in value-added processing of its agricultural and marine products to increase export earnings and create jobs.

“Namibia can attract investments by creating a favourable business environment, offering incentives, and promoting the country’s competitive advantages to attract foreign investment and integration into global value chains,” Takoukam adds.
– charmaine@namibian.com.na