Swapo Party Vice President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah called for concerted efforts to mitigate the drought situation experienced in some parts of the country due to low rainfall.

Speaking at the first Central Committee of the Swapo Party for this year, Nandi-Ndaitwah appealed to all regional coordinators and the nation at large to work in collaboration with the governors and councillors to see to it that whatever the government is making available to ease the drought situation and its impact must be done in the best interest of the people.

Leaders of the Kanono Women's Organisation, a small-scale farmers association in the Zambezi Region's Sibbinda Constituency, paid a visit to the green schemes in the Kavango East Region.

The team was led by the Councillor of Sibinda Constituency, Micky Lukaezi, and was undertaken to acquire knowledge and replicate good agricultural practices they learned during the visit.

The team has been in the region since Monday.

They visited commercial green schemes as well as small-scale farmers.

State-owned enterprises that manage green schemes have been called to do away with excessive bureaucracy when procuring goods and services.

The call was made by the Chairperson of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Natural Resources, Vincent Mareka, during a visit to the Naute Farm Irrigation Project near Keetmanshoop.

The farm is managed by the Namibia Industrial Development Agency.

Mareka says the committee found that this red tape in procuring services is hindering the operations of some green schemes.

The government has allocated an amount of N$10 million in the 2023/2024 budget for the development of the Neckartal Dam Irrigation Project.

The project will run on two farms of a combined size of 11 000 hectares, acquired by the Ministry of Agriculture, Water, and Land Reform.

Finance Minister Iipumbu Shiimi in his budget speech said that applications from private businesses to operate the Ndonga Linena, Uvhungu Vhungu, and Orange River Green Scheme Irrigation projects are still under evaluation.