The Standard Bank will hold a Biomass Fair 2023 from September 7 to September 9 at Okahandja.

The fair aims to promote the booming biomass sector in Namibia.

Bush biomass is organic matter that is from the bush and can be used for value chains such as energy, production, and bush feeds.

The CEO of Namibia Biomass Industry Group, Progress Kashandula, says Namibia is impacted by bush encroachment, and when approached correctly, it can lead to increased livestock production, groundwater recharge, employment, and biodiversity.

Kashandula says the agriculture sector has an estimated land area of close to 45 million hectares, which is highly encroachment-prone.

Biomass will offer economic opportunities for the utilisation and local value addition of woody biomass, and it can contribute to the country's social and economic welfare.

"Namibia is well known for good beef. Now, if our agricultural land is overtaken by this blanket of bush encroachment, it means that we are able to store fewer animals and maybe import or produce less beef. So this is the biggest problem. This sector has grown large, and there are innovative value chains that are developing. The market for bush biomass has been developing. Namibia currently has a scarcity of electricity. So we now have a power utility company, which is envisaged to have a 40-megawatt plant in Tsumeb, which is part of energy production."

The Director of Forestry at the Ministry of Environment, Forestry, and Tourism, Johnson Ndokosho, urged the public to make sure to put out the fires when camping to avoid wildfires.

"We came up with this strategy on the sustainable utilisation of the biomass to ensure that while there is a problem of bush encroachment, the harvesting should not create a desert and should be done in such a way that there will still be, while we are addressing the problem, some trees to ensure that the environmental process continues to exist. If we do not take care of this wildfire or the use of fire, it will burn all our resources. So I am calling up all our farmers out there: If you are going to camp and so on, make sure that you put out your fire, and if you are smoking, ensure that your cigarettes are completely out so that we do not have an unwanted fire."

The Biomass Fair will be held under the theme ''Igniting the growth of the biomass sector in Namibia.