Commercial skills for Namibia’s emerging farmers

Twenty emerging farmers from Namibia recently attended a three-day course on strategic management in agriculture at Grootfontein, Namibia, presented by Dr Wim Nell of the University of the Free State’s Centre for Agricultural Management. Based on the book Strategic Approach to Farming Success written by Wim and Rob Napier from Australia, this course is normally presented to commercial farmers, but the three-day course for emerging farmers was organised by the Joint Presidency Committee (Namibian National Farmers’ Union and Union) under the Emerging Commercial Farmer Support Programme and partly sponsored by FNB Namibia. The organisers – both from Grootfontein – were Mecki Schneider, a commercial farmer, and Solomon Tjipura, an emerging farmer. Some emerging farmers came from as far as Gobabis (500km) and Ondangwa (300km) to attend the course. – Staff reporter