President Nangolo Mbumba says collaboration among the African universities is important, especially action research that translates to tangible development for Namibia and Africa at large.
Dr. Mbumba, in his capacity as the Chancellor of the University of Namibia, undertook a tour of the Neudamm Campus on the outskirts of Windhoek on Thursday.
UNAM's Neudamm Campus and Farm is the leading agriculture training campus, with its facilities being used to advance research in agriculture and related fields. It is also the only campus internationally accredited to offer a course on wildlife medicine .
UNAM Vice-Chancellor, Professor Kenneth Matengu, says, "And all our 85 graduates are all employed, some abroad and some here in Botswana and South Africa, and the second thing is that this campus is very much oriented towards solving problems with a very strong extension programme that focuses on supporting farmers."
With an enrollment of more than 300 students this year, the campus is also leading the rangeland improvement bush control and sustainable consortium with NUST and other universities from Botswana, South Africa, and Germany.
The Consortium aims to address capacity building in rangeland.
Another is the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture, known as RUForum, established by ten vice chancellors in 2004, which is a consortium of universities in Africa.
"We have students that are in the fields as we speak, this camp here at Neudamm, where we are actually just studying the impact of bush encroachment on rangeland and doing research on different bush methods, and we have around 170 plots around Omaheke for the students to do that. We have been funded by the Mastercard Foundation through the RUforum and have been supporting the community of Okondjatu, where we are crushing bushes and turning them into feed," says Associate Dean of the UNAM School of Agriculture, Prof. Simon Angombe.
Investments in practical solutions have seen UNAM set up a solar plant to supply its daytime electricity needs.
"UNAM decided to partner with Allency so that we could, of course, buy from NamPower, and as we speak now, this electricity is from our solar plant, and at night we switch to Nampower. This is a good project because it reduces UNAM's carbon footprint by generating electricity."
"We are changing all our shaded parking areas and also on the roofs and taking energy from there, and the one that is almost completed is Rundu and Katima. Ogongo is done, and so is Keetmanshoop. Others are 40–60 percent done," says Prof. Kenneth Matengu.
It is this type of collaboration and subsequent development that President Mbumba says would lead to Africa being respected as an equal player in terms of contributions on the global stage.
"This collaboration among African institutions is very important. Everybody wants to go to other places. Some of us, in our youth, were in other places because we were not allowed to enter our own countries, and that is why we appreciate the fact that we are home. And I think now that we are independent, we can go wherever we want, but we have a home to come to. For an African to run away to another smaller continent, you are not looking ahead because sooner or later people will start coming back to mother Africa. Mother Africa will only be respected when we are the ones who are developing, collaborating, expanding research, and improving things."
The President also toured the meat processing units, agro-food processing, and seed multiplication, as well as the animal sciences labs.
The produce is being sold at the Neudamm campus shop, UNAM staff members, and selected retail outlets.