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Katima community receives horticulture project

Katima community receives horticulture project

The Sikanjabuka Community Forest in the Katima Rural Constituency received a horticultural project to improve food security efforts and enhance crop production in the community.

Minister of Environment, Forestry, and Tourism Pohamba Shifeta, who handed over the project urged community leaders to ensure that resources should benefit the community.

“For the Namibian economy to flourish, we need to prioritise rural development through investment in our natural resources, value addition, and protection of our wildlife as community benefit through sustainable trophy hunting, tourism development, and other related livelihoods,” Shifeta said.

Situated in the Katima Rural Constituency in the Zambezi Region, Sikanjabuka Community Forest Conservancy Resilience Horticultural project was funded with over N$4, 9 million under the Ecosystem-Based Adaptation investment window under the Empower to Adapt (EDA) project, which is centred around Creating Climate Change Resilient Livelihoods through Community Based Natural Resource Management in Namibia (CBNRM EDA Project).

To date, a functional greenhouse system powered by renewable energy has been successfully established with a 10 000-liter water tank installed on site and rehabilitated 3 water boreholes and
retrofitted them with solar In addition, the project has procured one tractor and its implementation for sustainable rangeland management and procured Bee hives for honey production.

The project recorded its bumper harvest early this year and generated an income of N$12 000 which has been invested back into the upkeep of the project.

The Sikanjabuka Community Forest has a population of about 1300 people, which consists of 320 households.


 

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