Edward Dunkley from the Go-Aide Foundation in Germany
(See photos at the bottom of this article)
A. Met with:
1)
Board of Directors of the EBC Group, based in Rundu
2)
EBC Management at DiHokoHoko
3)
Community leaders and prospective candidates from the DiHoko district
4)
Resident Project Manager for IRDNC at Buffalo Camp
B. Investigated Training Centre
Infrastructure:
1) EBI in
Rundu (Kavango)
2) EBC at DiHoko
(Kavango)
3) IRDNC at the Kyaramacan Offices (Zambezi
West)
C. Overview
The visit was very fruitful and
Edward Dunkley (ED) from the Go-Aide Foundation and Albie Oelofse (AO) from the
Divundu Horticulture Projects (DHP) gained a lot of insight and knowledge
regarding the planned Go-Aide and DHP initiative (the Project).
The EBI center at Rundu is well
equipped with 1 Ha that is fenced, an electrical submerged pump and a 10 000
liter water tank. This is available for the Project, for training in intensive vegetable
gardening with irrigation.
EBC at DiHoko has electrical power,
a pump and a 5 000 liter tank. This equipment will have to be supplemented with
2 extra electrical pumps and irrigation equipment to facilitate intensive vegetable
gardening with irrigation. The available land is 1 Ha.
IRDNC at Kyaramacan has a 3.7 Ha piece
of land, of which 0.25 Ha is fenced and ready for training. It has no
infrastructure such as electricity, pumps or irrigation. It is set up next to
the Kyaramacan Head Office from where it receives security from the complex
security personnel. Kyaramacan is planning to provide electricity from about
200 meters away, depending on available funds. Friederich from the IRDNC
mentioned that he would look into getting a quote.
D. Factors to keep in mind
1) Irrigation and Runoff
(seasonal)
It is understood that the Project
will comprise of basic horticulture training, focused on organic fertilizers.
Two types of farming will be introduced to the local people who will be
selected for the three year training program. One is organic vegetable farming
with irrigation and the other will be organic farming based on seasonal rain
cycles using runoff techniques. Both types of training will involve
permaculture principles.
2) Distances
Depending on the area to be
impacted by the training, it is very important to keep in mind that the
mentioned area from Rundu to Divundu is 200 Km long. Training students at
DiHoko, sending them back to their own land and monitoring them from then on
might be very difficult, regarding logistics. In all likelihood Emmanuel will
require a taxi for at least one day in order to visit all the sites in the
short periods for which he is available. ED and AO believe it is important that
the gardeners remain in touch with the training centre as much as possible.
Spreading the gardeners across the 200 Km strip will need to ensure that we do
not overly sacrifice monitoring and evaluation abilities, and that they do not
“lose touch” with the other trainees and the training centre.
3) Influence
The students will have to be
mentored, monitored and evaluated closely in the first year, until they get
used to what is expected of them from the program. If this is not maintained,
the influence by the training staff will fade away and water down. Students
will then start to drift away from the expected program and implement
alternatives as they see fit. In this regard, the distances between the
students and to the training centre will play a major role.
4) Equipment
The irrigation farmers will need
equipment to be able to implement irrigation. The first problem in rural areas
will be power to operate the pumps for irrigation. Solar power and solar pumps
are very expensive. On top of this one needs a very secure area to protect
solar equipment from theft. This technology is extremely popular and therefor
prone to be stolen if not protected rigorously. With these prices in mind and
the popular solar “cash market”, there is even a significant risk of trainees
themselves selling their equipment. The prices for solar equipment also makes
maintaining, replacing and even leasing the equipment very difficult. Electric
pumps are far more affordable, but they need electrical power at the area to be
cultivated. The biggest problem with electrical pumps is the cost the provide
power to an area earmarked for irrigation farming.
Areas that have electrical power
close to the river will be the more favored choice for irrigation intensive vegetable
farming. Farmers would not need tanks and towers as the pumps can deliver
straight into the irrigation system at the desired pressure. Tanks and towers
cannot provide the same pressure.
5) Black frost and heat waves
In recent
years black frost and heat waves have destroyed crops. It is believed that
sprinkling crops in the early hours of the day before sunrise can prevent the
onset of frost on the crops, thus protecting them. Sprinkling crops during the
hottest hours of the day can also protect crops during heat waves. Sprinklers
however, require higher pressure, which only electric pumps can deliver.
ED and AO then returned to
Windhoek to co-ordinate final preparations before the implementation of the
Project.
