AGRIBUSDEV 2018 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING  PROVIDED STAKEHOLDERS WITH CLEAR UNDERSTANDING OF GREEN SCHEME FARMING

The company hosted its third Annual General Meeting (AGM) on the 09^th of March 2018 at NIPAM. The AGM core objective was to present the 2016/17 annual report to the Shareholder. Under the new Board Chairmanship of Ms Sophia Kasheeta and the newly appointed agriculture Minister Hon. Alpheus G. !Naruseb, the event attracted many participants from various sectors including some key government officials such as Hon. Governor Erginus Endjala of Omusati,Hon. Festus Ueitele of Omaheke and Hon. Sirkka Usiku of Kavango West Regions, representatives of Kunene, Khomas and Hardap governors and representatives of various institutions. Deputy Chairperson of the Board Mr Bertus Van Wyk directed the proceeding whereas the Chairperson welcomed all participants present at the vent.

Hon.!Naruseb addressed the audience and assured all that ‘’I am not here to reinvent the wheel’’ meaning his leadership will continue to strengthen earlier programs developed by his Predecessors. Hon. !Naruseb speech emphasised on four main concerns

Company compliance with the requirements of Public Enterprise 

He applauded AGRIBUSDEV continuous effort to be amongst Public Enterprises that submit  annual reports to their shareholder every financial year. This shows a good governance and high level of accountability by both the Board and management of the company.

Company’s revenue growth in 2016/17 financial year

The assessment of the year reviewed concluded that  business canters under Direct Management of AGRIBUSDEV improved their turnover by 76% in relation to that of the previous financial year, while the corresponding expenditure grew by 53%.This fascinated the Shareholder and assured the audience that the company is on the right trajectory towards its vision

Change the local mind-set to buy Namibian products

The minister appealed to the public to recognise the value of domestic produce and continue buying these goods to support and grow the local economy.

Impact of  Fall Armyworm

Green Scheme is affected by the  Fall Armyworm for the consecutive two seasons. It is therefore still remain a great concern as most of the farms are affected severely. The Minister urged the company Board and management to device new measures to contain the pest and alternatively plant crops resilient to the manifestation of pests. 

The Managing Director Mr Petrus Uugwanga presented the annual report to the shareholder and stakeholders. His presentation highlighted key company achievements and challenges for the year under review as follows.

Production decrease on cereal crops

Maize and wheat recorded a production decrease due to the impact of the Army Fall Worm on Maize and the low morale of Small Scale Farmers to continue planting wheat due to increase transport cost and low profit margin on the crop. Maize recorded a yield of 14,437MT as compared to 17,829MT harvested in 2015/16. This creates a production shortfall of 3,392MT translated into 19% decrease. The wheat harvest recorded a total of 3,990MT in the year under review as compared to 5,447MT in year 2015/16. This situation creates a production decrease of 1,457MT denoted by a 26.7%

Permanent and temporal Employment

The company manages to retain the total number of permanent employees despite the hard economic condition with a total of approximately 530 personnel’s. However, the category of the temporal employment declined sharply from 6476 workers to 3947 workers reflecting a 39% decrease as farms has to become innovative and reduce their expenditures. all due to economic down turn.

Investment opportunities

The MD called for potential investors to invest into Green Scheme through an approach of adding value to the produce and alternative source of energy such as solar or bio-energy.

Mr Uugwanga assured participants that despite the hard economic challenges and the impact of the   Army Fallworm that shall not prevent AGRIBUSDEV to innovate and seek continuous growth in business.

The meeting invited questions from the audience upon where participants contributed constructive concerns on food standards, value addition, shortages of storage facilities and loss of markets.

See full 2016/17 annual report on our web under publications

HONOURABLE !NARUSEB "THE NEW MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE, WATER AND FORESTRY’’ VISITED AGRIBUSDEV FOR THE FIRST TIME

AGRIBUSDEV ENGINEERS ACCREDITED BY ENGINEERING COUNCIL OF NAMIBIA (ECN)

Back Row: AGRIBUSDEV Management: Far left-Mr. Ignatius Endyala: manager Engineering, Mr. Paulus Mungoba-Acting Manager Agronomy, Middle-Mr Petrus Uugwanga MD, Mr. Natanael Amoomo-Finance Manager and Mr. Michael Kadhila Acting manager HR.

Seated Engineers: Left Mr Erickson Nghitwikwa, Middle-Mr Gerhardt Shimwandi (MAWF) and Mr. Felix Ndinamwene

AGRIBUSDEV QUARTERLY MANAGEMENT MEETING STRATEGISED ON CONTROL OF ARMY FALLWORM

AGRIBUSDEV management meets each quarter of a year to discuss issues affecting company business climate. The top agenda matters to this meeting were anchored on; Crop performance of previous season, Innovation measures to control army fall worms, performance review of Medium Scale farmers (MSF) and SSFs hence propose recommendations on the way forward. The meeting took place in Etunda Green Scheme Irrigation Farm located approximately 45KM West of Outapi town in Omusati Region. The forum took three consecutive days Wednesday 13 – Friday 15 September 2017. It all started with a morning assembly including Etunda Farm workers and management staff who travelled from various farms and offices. Petrus Uugwanga the Managing Director (MD) of AGRIBUSDEV addressed all employees at the morning gathering.

MD applauded his management on anumber ofapproach taken during the implementation of company strategic plan. However, he reckons that a lot still need to be done through sustainable innovative strategies to meet the company mandate. ‘’AGRIBUSDEV failure is a downfall to the national food security agenda’’. Therefore one has to plan sustainably with a high degree of urgency and improve communication to navigate through all business dynamics.

The meeting deliberated on core agenda matters as follows;

Crop performance: Specifically to Etunda Farm that was hard hit by impact of the fall worm, only a total of 120HA were planted as opposed to planned 420HA of a maize crop. Other farms planted according to their cropping program although the yield was slightly affected by other factors such as birds, water logging and financial constraints.

Mitigation measures to combat fall worm: to break the cycle of the stubborn pest, management proposed a list of techniques namely; planting alternate crops e.g. ground nuts and vegetable, introduce early maturing maize cultivar, use of helicopter to spray larger planted area at a time, continuous search of effective pesticide, andinvolvement of key stakeholdersto find a joint amicable solution prior declaring national Army fall outbreak.

Performance of Medium Scale Farmers (MSF):management met all EtundaMSFs to discuss general crop performance at MSFs plots and solicit their inputs on remedial measures to further spread of the worm.MSFs prescribed part oftheir non-performance to shortfall of the service provider (Etunda management) and overall management of their employees.Etunda singled out scheduling of service required by MSFs on time to be a key factor to late planting.Both parties MSFs agreed on proposed measures to combat the effect of the Army fall worm.

The meeting continued with a field visit at Asparagus, wheat and barley plantations. All fields looked promising and no sign of the worm on barley and wheat.

Recommendation concluded that although the company2015/2020 strategic targets might be a challenge to attain due to current critical economic climate that shall not warrant an excuse in meeting those targets. However,rather to explore new sustainable business intervention measures.

MD closed the meeting at 15H00 on 15 September 2017 and advised all managers to exercise high degree of budget control, innovation, creativity, and prioritisation and minimise expenditures.