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Agronomic Board signs quality control agreement with Standards Institute

Agronomic Board signs quality control agreement with Standards Institute

The Namibian Agronomic Board and Namibia Standards Institute signed an agreement this week to promote food and nutrition security through the implementation of regulated standards aimed at governing the production and distribution of selected food items.

The main objective of the agreement is to enable the two organizations to collaborate in areas of standardization, conformity assessments, and testing and metrology.

The agreement will ensure that a formalized systematic approach is established in the local agronomy and horticulture industry sector to allow the country to produce good quality products that can access both local and international markets while enabling fair competition with products from elsewhere.

According to the two entities, the collaboration will benefit producers and traders in a form of access to a discounted rate for published crop-specific marketing standards, and access to public dialogues on matters about standardization, conformity assessment, testing, and metrology.

Standards Institute CEO, Chie Wasserfall will deliver the provision of technical advice to Agronomic Board and its stakeholders on specific sector standards available at the national, regional, and/or international levels for adoption as national standards.

“We will facilitate the adoption or development of specific sector standards relevant to the mandate of NAB as identified and share information with NAB and its stakeholders on their participation in the standards development process, as well as in the certification process,” Wasserfall said.

This collaboration further aims to strengthen the local farm systems and also raise awareness of the importance of food security and food safety by implementing and adhering to standards related to crop production.

“In the quest to establish ourselves as a world-class regulator of a vibrant, diversified, and sustainable crop Industry, we commit ourselves to contribute to the implementation of the national quality policy by actively participating in the activities of the national quality, whilst engaging in robust stakeholder consultations to ensure our local producers and traders are well informed and have access to the published crop-specific marketing standards to inculcate a culture of quality within the industry,” Agronomic Board CEO, Dr. Fidelis Mwazi, said.

The institutions have already begun discussions on activities supporting the developmental initiatives toward a sustainable agriculture sector.


Agronomic Board CEO, Dr. Fidelis Mwazi and Namibia Standards Institute CEO, Chie Wasserfall during the signing ceremony on Tuesday, 30 August.


 

About The Author

Donald Matthys

Donald Matthys has been part of the media fraternity since 2015. He has been working at the Namibia Economist for the past three years mainly covering business, tourism and agriculture. Donald occasionally refers to himself as a theatre maker and has staged two theatre plays so far. Follow him on twitter at @zuleitmatthys