Covid-19 accelerates commercial farming dreams
WEEKEND farming is not a new concept in Namibia as many people regularly supplement their monthly income with some kind of part-time agricultural activity. However, a financial planner at a local bank, Aubrey Hardine, has a new inspiration, partly brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic, to evolve his smallscale farm into a full-fledged commercial operation.
The financial planner, who is gradually swapping the boardroom for the tractor, currently has some 0.3 hectares of land under pumpkin cultivation, which he intends to expand to one hectare by August this year. This, he said, is his bid to contribute in the reduction of the country’s over reliance on fruit and vegetable imports. These imports, mostly from South Africa, in 2019 totalled an astronomical US$59.56 million or over N$897 million at today’s exchange rates.
“Covid-19 showed us the fragility of our food security but I see the pandemic as an opportunity for Namibia to utilise farmland productively to increase our food security. If we as Namibians support our local farmers, then that is how we can grow the agricultural industry to become food secure. If we all buy local fresh produce, imagine what that will do to our GDP,” Hardine stated.
The pandemic’s impact on job security and food import uncertainty ignited Hardine’s dream to go full steam into a commercial farming operation. “I want to make farming a profitable venture. This means going commercial and that entails going far beyond just planting seeds and adding water,” said Hardine.
As a full-time financial planner, Hardine had to rope in expert farming advice, which he admits was not an easy feat. After searching high and low, he eventually secured valuable mentorship and recently harvested and marketed five tons of pumpkins, for which he secured supply to local retailers towards the end of last year.
“My wife, Chantelle, and I managed to secure some land in February 2020 just before the start of the pandemic in the Rietoog area. She has really been the backbone of the operation and an excellent business partner. We both realised that this pandemic is not going away and all farmers should really find a way to meet the demand in Namibia. Once we do that then we can start looking at exporting our locally grown products to the region and beyond,” Hardine added.
To be fair, Hardine already had deep roots in farming that stemmed from early exposure to crop cultivation in the Rietoog area of southern Namibia by his grandfather, Frans Willem McNab. Hardine recalls tagging along with his grandfather to market crops at a nearby town called Nabaseb.
Now, in his own pursuit of farming as a full-time activity but with his full-time corporate gig in Windhoek, he needed help on the farm. For this he asked his Windhoekbased domestic worker, Oscar Naunyango, to take up the challenge. Naunyango accepted and is now the farm manager.
Said Hardine: “Oscar really blossomed on the farm and came out of his shell. He has great ideas and we have been learning together on how to maximise our yields. One of the great aspects of farming is its scope for empowerment and creating jobs.”
Meanwhile, to support local farmers, the Namibia Agronomic Board (NAB) has imposed strict regulations, effective since 1 August 2020, to curb the importation of fresh fruits and vegetables. The new measures, meant to encourage local production, involve import levies, trade levies and subjecting all aspiring and existing importers to register with the board and acquire import permits.
The new regulations are aimed at protecting local producers from excessive foreign competition and to encourage local production, said NAB.
According to the NAB’s Horticulture Market Development Manager, Emilie Abraham, the regulations are in line with the Market Share Promotion (MSP) scheme to stimulate local production and the trade of horticultural products in Namibia. She noted the decision to control the imports of fruits and vegetables was taken following an increase in the importation of primary processed fruit and vegetable products that can be easily produced in Namibia using local raw materials.
For one to prosper at anything one intends pursuing, a certain level of discipline and integrity will come in handy, keep one grounded and focused, especially when it comes to learning and working.
The director of Southern Business School, Albin Jacobs, says the way we work or most importantly learn has changed, and it seems changed for good as it has become the ‘new normal’.
“Some aspects of this are not mentioned or discussed, but it is essential and integral to the success of working and learning remotely. It has become the new elephant in the room, the need for discipline, integrity and trust. All of this is assumed, but these issues keep on surfacing in the most interesting of places,” says Jacobs.
He mentions that the reason organisations are hesitant to allow remote working, or schools are apprehensive to let pupils and students engage in e-learning, is because of lack of oversight.
He said this means giving employees and students responsibility or the power to selfmanage.
“Empowering them to such an extent that you leave them to work without having someone constantly overseeing them or checking if they are hard at work. The same issue comes up when discussions about e-learning are held. ‘Can we trust the students?’ followed by, ‘Won’t they just cheat and use Google for their assignments?’ or ask someone else to do the assignments for them? In the present climate of social distancing, exam halls full of students are out of the question,” he echoed.
With students having to take exams online, within a certain time frame without invigilators breathing down their necks, Jacobs said this is where trust and discipline come in from the student point of view, as well as the integrity of the systems and management thereof from an institutional point of view.
Jacobs was impressed that most people are honest and if they are given the freedom to work from home, or to do their schoolwork when it suits them, they will take that opportunity.
“Instilling and empowering employees and students to fit their working or learning schedule into the day which suits them best can only lead to better results and even better self-discipline. Not everyone can work or is suited to work from eight to five; what is more important is that the work, study and assignments are finished before the deadline. It brings a whole new level of convenience into one’s life,” believes Jacobs.
Working from home and the future of e-learning and distance learning is bright in Africa, and the world’s present challenges brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic have brought it into even sharper focus.
Jacobs says as long as there’s trust and every stakeholder acts with integrity and discipline, the way we work and learn can become a much less rigid and more pleasant and productive experience.
“The new normal is the catalyst for change, and we need to embrace it or be left behind. This is the new challenge for education systems across the world, producing learners and ultimately employees that can thrive in this new normal.”
- psiririka@nepc.com.na