From the 28th till the 31st of March 2014.

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.