NCA is future of agricultural production

Catherine Sasman - Winfried Metzger, historically a successful farmer south of the redline, has transported his considerable energy and visionary insight to farm in the northern communal area (NCA), hitherto avoided like the plague by other commercial farmers.

After years of cultivating crops alongside traditional communities from the riverbank of the Kavango, for Metzger the country’s future farming prospects lies North.

“The North is where most and best of Namibia’s water, land, wild and labour is at,” commented Metzger. “The North is what can get Namibia out of trouble.”

A cattle and crop farmer, but also a drilling contractor, Metzger has traversed the entire Namibia, first alongside his father since a very young age, and later with his own work, which often took him to the most obscure, most remote, and most interesting parts of the country.

This has given him a rich and nuanced understanding of the lay of the land and the nature of its varied population.

With interruptions, he has been working across the northern regions for the past 18 years, and has drilled as many as 400 to 500 boreholes for the emerging northern farmers eager to get in the major leagues of agricultural production.

“It works,” Metzger commented. “It may be slow-going, but it works.”

Over the last five years Metzger has dedicated a considerable part of his life to develop crop production from land granted to him for use from the local traditional community.

From the small piece of land he has built himself an impressive home from the local sand and stone on the riverbank. Next to that is his office and solar-driven warehouse where the crops are being processed, packaged, and distributed from.

Across the national tar road between Katwitwi and Nkurenkuru– alongside and in consultation with the local community – Metzger has installed an irrigation system that is used on twelve plots of land of 12,5 hectares each where they are now busy harvesting a 1500 tonne yield of healthy-looking potatoes.

The water for the irrigation is drawn directly from boreholes and the Kavango River and local labour is used.

His marketing strategy is also plugged into the large local northern market with an apparent insatiable demand for the locally-produced potatoes.

Metzger boasts that the potatoes, harvested as early as four o’ clock in the morning to make the most of cooler temperatures, are being scooped up by local buyers as soon as they are packaged and ready to go.

Locals come to buy directly from his farmstead. Others are being serviced by truckloads carrying the potatoes directly into Nkurenkuru/Rundu or as far as Tsumeb, where taxis quickly cart them off to Ondangwa-Oshakati and elsewhere.

There are no delays, no middlemen claiming commissions, no inordinate bureaucracy, time is not wasted, and the produce gets in its freshest form to the consumer – ‘van die grond na die mond’.

IMPETUS

Metzger happened upon the idea to – amongst others – plant potatoes in the area when he discovered that potatoes worth about N$5 million daily, are being transported through Namibia from South Africa to the Angolan market.

He has ambitions to eventually serve at least a portion of the southern Angolan market and sees no reason why more informed and intensive crop production cannot feed a large part of the northern region, including the nearest Angolan market.

What makes him more positive of the agricultural prospects of the northern regions is the yet unexplored underground water potential.

Metzger’s drilling experience spans over 30 years and explains, the Kunene river pours about 200 times the amount of water annually used in Windhoek, into the ocean.

A reasonable portion of this could be used for agriculture in northern Namibia.

Metzger further asserts that Nkurenkuru in Kavango West holds more fresh ground- and river-water resources than any other town in the country.

The potential is vast, he maintains.

“We can make a huge difference if stronger, commercial farmers come into the area to invest into the agricultural sector. We do not need to do it with borrowed money from elsewhere. Instead we should be considering the people available in the country. I think it would be a winning principle,” Metzger said.

He enthusiastically adds: “We have strong people in the agricultural sector, people with sufficient knowledge and skills; they should move out of their comfort zones in Windhoek and come. The north provides very good investment opportunities.”