Food basket ambition stalls Kalimbeza rice project
Patience Makwele The Zambezi region’s ambition to position itself as Namibia’s food basket remains under pressure despite millions of dollars being invested in agricultural development, with the region’s Governor Dorothy Kabula acknowledging that the flagship Kalimbeza Rice Project continues to be hamstrung by long-standing operational challenges, including a broken processing machine, inadequate storage facilities and […]
Patience Makwele
The Zambezi region’s ambition to position itself as Namibia’s food basket remains under pressure despite millions of dollars being invested in agricultural development, with the region’s Governor Dorothy Kabula acknowledging that the flagship Kalimbeza Rice Project continues to be hamstrung by long-standing operational challenges, including a broken processing machine, inadequate storage facilities and the lack of a reliable market.
Delivering her State of the Region Address (SORA) on Monday in Katima Mulilo, Kabula said government had spent about N$40 million on planting, harvesting and bird-scaring operations at the Kalimbeza Rice Project but persistent operational bottlenecks continue to frustrate efforts to unlock its full production potential.
The governor said the project’s rice processing machine has remained out of service since 2018, forcing workers to sort rice manually while inadequate storage facilities continue to limit the scheme’s capacity to handle bumper harvests.
“I therefore call upon disaster risk management under the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) to prioritise Kalimbeza rice for distribution during drought relief and flood assistance programmes to ensure the stock produced at the project is utilised,” she said.
