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Dare to Care targets N$10 million by end of March for drought-relief subsidies

Dare to Care targets N$10 million by end of March for drought-relief subsidies

The Dare to Care fund, established to provide drought relief to farmers, has just received a half a million dollar boost from one of its founding members, Agra. The fund’s target is to raise N$10 million by the end of this month.

At the end of February, the fund had already collected N$1.8 million in contributions.

Announcing their considerable contribution to the fund last week, Agra said it will be utilised to subsidise selected feed products for all drought-stricken farmers, both commercial and communal.

The subsidies are to be applied at approved feed retailers to procure whole yellow maize, fattening pellets for sheep and cattle, and lucerne pellets. The Dare to Care fund does not give donations but subsidise part of the farmer’s cost to buy animal feed. The target date to implement the subsidy scheme is 01 April 2019.

“Any feed supply company which is interested to be part of this action, will have to make a contribution to the fund before their products qualify for subsidy. Any retail feed supplier which has registered the past 6 months at participating feed companies will qualify to provide subsidized animal feed lines if such retailers contribute financially to the Dare to Care Fund,” Agra stated.

Agra’s Chief Executive, Arnold Klein, said they believe the biggest number of farmers will benefit from such a collective effort, encouraging other organisations also to contribute to the Dare to Care fund.

In the meantime, an external auditor has been appointed to ensure full transparency and accountability in the fund’s management and subsidy allocations.

The fund is supported by the Namibia Agricultural Union, the Namibia Emerging Commercial Farmers Union, and private sector companies.


Caption: Celebrating Agra’s N$500 million contribution to the Dare to Care fund, from the left, Agra’s Chief Executive, Arnold Klein, the President of the Namibia Emerging Commercial Farmers Union, Dr N Nghifindaka, the Manager: Commodities at the Namibia Agricultural Union, Harald Marggraff, and the Executive Manager of the emerging farmers’ union, Daniel Mahua.


 

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