Agri Bank reaches out to communal farmers

KEEPING A farming business alive has never been an easy feat, and it is even more difficult for a part-time farmer.

Part-time farmers strive to keep their farms self-sustaining amid full-time employment in urban centers, and the perennial drought the country faces.

For the last six years, 40-year-old Abednego 'Abedi' Kaiko has been a part-time communal farmer in the Tallismanus settlement in the Otjombinde constituency of Omaheke region, where he was raised. Communal farming runs in his blood and is all form of livelihood he knows.

Kaiko is a full-time civil servant at Gobabis but spends most of his weekends at his farm.

He started out with a small number of small and large livestock, which proved to be challenging sin2ce pastures and water are shared by all residents in communal areas.

This proves to be a challenge for him to make his agri-business financially viable as, at times, the area is overcrowded with livestock, which depletes grazing.

“Grazing in our area is enough but the dilemma is land management because it is a communal area. Here you don't have a camp to call your own as the land belongs to all residents. Today you are here and tomorrow you are there, and someone else takes over tomorrow. That's the issue,” Kaiko said sadly.

His passion for farming was boosted when he secured a no collateral loan for part-time farmers from Agribank in 2018 to buy more cattle, goats and a sheep ram. The Tallismanus area where he is farming is still a wilderness area, where farmers have to protect their livestock against predators and consuming toxic wild plants.

“Now and then we have an invasion of cheetahs, jackals and the seasonal 'poison leaf' (dichapetalum cymosum), that kills animals swiftly and there is no antidote for poisoned animals,” Kaiko stressed.

He maintains that part-time farming is not a walk in the park.

“It's not easy. If you don't visit your home or farm regularly, you will not make it, especially during the drought. I'm obliged to visit two or three times a month to ensure livestock is kept up to avoid financial losses. Since you have a loan to repay, you cannot just lay back and say, oh well, my cattle are at the farm.

“You have to ensure that your animals are in good condition. So, if you want to farm you have to step up and rise to the occasion of hard work in order to make it in the end.”

Apart from livestock farming, Kaiko is diversifying his agri-business, adding crop production to his portfolio.

“As you can see, I have cleared an area for a garden to plant maize and other cash crops,” he said.

Kaiko hopes to increase his livestock in order to break even in his agri-business venture.

“If I can sell between 20 and 40 calves per year, then I know I can maintain the herd as opposed to taking money from my pocket every time to sustain my livestock and repay my loan,” he emphasizes.

He plans to restock because some of the cows are old.

“We need to change by selling the older cows and keeping the heifers,” he said.

He ascribed his breakthrough in agribusiness to the support he got from Agribank to build his core herd.