The Otavi Constituency has announced that it will start registering farmers who have been pushed to townlands with their animals to benefit from drought relief food.

The Regional Councillor of the Otavi Constituency, George !Garab, says this group of farmers is a special case.

Otavi is surrounded by many farms, and subsistence farmers retire, some with few animals and others with nothing, to townlands and settle in informal settlements.

Such situations, the Otavi Regional Councillor says, put pressure on the local authority council to accommodate those fringe farmers.

Some are farming on the outskirts of Otavi in the municipal camps; hence, cattle or goats are often seen roaming the streets of Otavi.

"We are in an urban area, but there are people lately farming in this urban area that are definitely affected by drought. We got the go-ahead to register these affected people. I wrote a letter to the municipality CEO and the honourable mayor, and they responded positively by giving us the data of those who are residing in the informal settlement."

The names of such farmers will be submitted to the office of the Prime Minister for consideration as beneficiaries of the drought relief food.

!Garab therefore calls on those who are to be registered for a period of three months to be patient, as he will notify them through various radio stations when the registering officials will be in their areas.