Kavango West regional leadership has called on the Disaster Risk Management Committee to look into the drought relief programme for livestock, as it disadvantages some communal farmers.

This leadership raised this during the visit of Deputy Prime Minister John Mutorwa to the region to familiarise himself with the drought relief programme on the regional level. 

The subsidy programme started last year in October, where the government would compensate 50% of the animal feed that the farmer purchases. 

Mathew Singambwe, the acting Chief Regional Officer, stressed that communal farmers do not have money to buy feed for their livestock.

"Our farmers are communal farmers with a limited number that are doing organised farming, not to say commercial farming, and this really is affecting them because if we look at the set criteria, it is mainly more advantageous to the commercial farmers than those that are farming in communal areas on the northern side of the red line, which makes it very difficult for them to participate."

"Not everything workable in a commercial area can be workable in a communal area; unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. Those ones they can afford to go buy fodder, and some of us can go and afford to buy fodder, but the communal area, which has 10 cattle, 15 cattle, and five cattle, you expect them to sell and go procure fodder, is not sustainable for them. These are the masses, and this is our concern: if their cattle die, they will not all of them be able to plough even if rain comes. You know the tractor story is not really doing them properly," added Joseph Sikongo, the Chairperson of the Kavango West Regional Council.

Director of Disaster Risk Management, Helen Likando, says this was the government's fast response to the emergency, but there is room for improvement.

She also admitted that the livestock feed claims were also taking too long to be processed and assured that the process would be adjusted.