Zambezi trio shines

The three finalists for the Zambezi Dry-land Maize Champions 2014 will be named at this year’s  Zambezi Trade fair to be held in August. Antoniete Venter, evaluator for the Namibian Agronomic Board said that despite the drought faced by many farmers, the Zambezi trio’s resilience shone through. “The competition has been ongoing for the past twenty years with rotation between dry land farming and irrigation the subsequent year. The competition motivates farmers to strive for better farming practices,” he said. The three farmers who all hail from the Zambezi Region are Lennox Kulobone, Fred Mwabi and Alfred Mutakalilumo. The farmers were evaluated on the criteria for the adoption of progressive farming practice, quality of crops, use of herbicides and pesticides and yield per hectare. The four judges were from the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry, the Agronomic Producers Association and the Likwama Farmers Union and a representative from the Namibian Agronomic Board Secretariat. Venter added that by embracing modern farming techniques empowers farmers to bridge the gap between being communal producers and being able to contribute their surplus produce into the formal market and commercial value chain in Namibia.