Japan's Ambassador to Namibia, Hisao Nishimaki, has expressed his satisfaction with several projects funded by the Japanese government in the Ohangwena Region.

Ambassador Nishimaki toured three projects in the region to assess their progress and familiarise himself with their impact. 

The delegation's first stop was at the small-scale Onhanadi Poultry Farm, situated in the Endola Constituency. 

Founder Immanuel Shitwomunhu established the project in 2018 with less than ten chickens received from his neighbour.

He said they soon noticed there was an increased demand for home-reared chicken, chicks, and eggs. 

The project's capacity at present is 1,000 chickens, and it offers ready-to-slaughter chickens, chicks for locals, fertiliser, as well as table eggs. 

It also has two incubators for hatching chicks themselves—one with a capacity of 352 eggs and another able to incubate 528 eggs.

In 2023, the project received funding of N$20,000 from the Japanese Embassy through the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation and the Agriculture, Water, and Land Reform Ministry and added a layer cage and chicken plucker. 

With commercial chicken feed deemed costly, the project tries to supplement this with locally sourced feed.

Another local project supported by Japan is the Limbandungila Pig Farm at Ondobe Village. 

Owned by Reverend Fillipus Haulofu, this project was assisted with pig feed and shading material, remedying a situation where the pigs were previously only dependent on shade from surrounding trees. 

"We appreciate your support, and we are still looking for good Samaritans again, especially for the food. As you see, they are not as we wanted because of a lack of food. We struggle to get food; that is our main problem, especially the small ones; pig growers are our main concern."

The Japanese Embassy representatives also paid a visit to the Oshamono Village, where it has financially supported a horticulture project.

"Our general aim is to enhance local farmers, especially for the small farmers, not only in the field of poultry, but we have hired several jobless people in all the fields, and we hire them and train them as farmers. If you go to the Kavango-West Region, we have hired several youngsters and made them farmers, and now they are getting income through their projects," said Ambassador Nishimaki.