Small-scale farmers in the north receive horticulture training
Small-scale farmers in Rundu, Kongola and Katima Mulilo recently received horticulture training through one of the in-country projects of the Knowledge Hub for Organic Agriculture in Southern Africa (KH SA), which aims at promoting the adoption and up-scaling of organic agriculture in Namibia.
The training, conducted by the Namibian Organic Association and the Namibia Nature Foundation benefited over 80 small-scale farmers over 3 workshops. The training was facilitated by Erastus Ndungu from Lima Farms in Katima and Wiebke Volkmann, from Earth Wise Enterprise.
The training further seeks to increase nutrition security in the target areas, grow the number of organic farmers and volume of organic food produced in Namibia.
“Organic agriculture is an inclusive approach to certified and non-certified organic agriculture production systems such as conservation agriculture; regenerative, biodynamic, biological and ecological farming; permaculture, agro-ecology and agroforestry systems, as well as climate smart and climate resilient production systems,” Organic Association Chairperson, Eckhart Foertsch, said.
The next step is to ensure sustainability of the knowledge gained during the workshop by supporting participants in building their own compost heaps and therefore enable them to produce a high quality soil improver.
The farmers will be supported by the local staff of the Nature Foundation. To reduce the labour and water demands some farmers opted to create a sheltered area in their kraals, where a continuous composting process of manure and dry organic matter can happen throughout the year.
The same group of participants will be trained on organic principles in rain fed crop production in the month of November.
The KH SA is a collaborative country-led partnership funded by the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development and implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).
It is one of five Knowledge Hubs for Organic Agriculture pursuing the goal of disseminating knowledge and shaping a network on national, regional and continental levels.
