The President of the Namibia National Farmers' Union wants agriculture to be treated as a strategic pillar for economic development, rather than as a social welfare project. 

Adolf Muremi was speaking at the Agri Outlook Conference, which is underway in Windhoek. 

While commending the government for the support it has been providing farmers during natural disasters, Muremi said more still needs to be done, especially in the areas of human-wildlife conflict, bush encroachment, limited market access, poor infrastructure (especially roads) and insufficient investment. 

"While we appreciate the government's drought relief programme, there are implementation gaps that require urgent review. We need to really structure a platform that allows for regular, meaningful dialogue. I believe some of the farmers here will attest that 'yes, we are getting assistance, but we are challenged'. Especially with all these protocols in place, people have to apply, and you find farmers to date who have not been assisted. Maybe we can look into the bureaucracy of that to see how best they can be assisted."

He also urged the government to prioritise investment in the agricultural sector in the national budget and to align the plan with the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) Kampala Declaration.

The Kampala CAADP Declaration, in line with the Malabo Declaration, mandates that governments allocate 10% of the national budget to the agricultural sector.

"I believe the Kampala Declaration is repeating the Maputo Declaration and the Malabo Declaration, and I think from its inception, and if you look into its implementation, you can see it was not done fully; only half of it was implemented. And last year we launched SCARS, and to date, you don't see anything happening after the launch, and if we reach November this year, it will be a year now after the launch, but as farmers, we don't see what happens."

In her response, the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Land Reform, Inge Zaamwani, said her ministry will look into the implementation of these policies and declarations. 

"We really need to move with urgency; there is no time for us to take time to implement what we have approved. If a strategy was approved already in November, I believe it is being rolled out, and that strategy will be presented at one of the panel discussions today."

Officiating the event, President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah urged participants at the conference to ensure that their discussions on policy, investments and practice were a catalyst for bold action in securing the future for generations to come.

"Our discussions must be transformed into real production. We can have as many discussions as possible; we can have many conferences, but after conferences, if we forget, it will be just as good as if nothing had happened. In fact, we have not done justice to ourselves because we invested our energy and time in these conferences, but if nothing comes out, then what does it mean to a Namibian person?"

The Agri Outlook Conference is an initiative by Namibian farmers' unions, and its primary goal is to allow agriculture stakeholders to share knowledge and plan how to improve Namibian farmers' productivity and profitability to contribute to livelihood, food security and the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country.