The Gobabis Municipality has committed to providing 250 hectares of town land for agriculture to address food insecurity. This came after various non-governmental organisations and other stakeholders promised to assist the malnutrition-stricken region with sustainable food production projects through the office of the Omaheke Governor.
The Mayor of Gobabis, Melba Tjozongoro, stressed that fighting malnutrition needs collective action, and this is the reason why the council has made available land for the agricultural project to commence. The land will be utilised for dairy, poultry, piggery, and crop production.
"We would like to be a permanent project because even if it is 25 years, it should be renewable because you would not say after 25 years the contract is finished while the people remain in town or so, and we have to create work, but we are going to play our role as the municipality and the governor's office with all the stakeholders," said Tjozongoro.
The Deputy Minister of Urban and Rural Development, Natalia |Goagoses, acknowledged the efforts taken by all stakeholders to remedy the dire situation of malnutrition. |Goagoses stressed that the project should not only answer the call of hunger but also consider the component of youth employment.
"We have got three threats in our country currently; they're many, but the key, in my view, currently that we are facing, and Omaheke is no exception, is that poverty and hunger are the biggest threats; we have serious youth unemployment; and the second and third ones are inequality and an inequitable economic situation in our country."
Omaheke Regional Governor Pijoo Nganate revealed that the World Food Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organisation have pledged to provide resources for the project.
"The leadership countrywide is also taking note of these efforts in the distribution of food, but they are not sustainable. We need to come up with sustainable solutions, which is why we went to the World Food Programme and requested that they assist us in developing food systems."
The envisaged project will be implemented in three phases.