An Evaluation Of Green Scheme Projects In The Kavango: The Awareness, Integration And Capacity Building Of Small Scale Farmers

ABSTRACT

The main objective of this study was to evaluate Green Scheme projects in the Kavango

region with specific emphasis on the awareness, integration, and capacity building of

small scale farmers. The Shadikongoro Green Scheme project from the Mukwe

constituency and the Ndonga Linena Green Scheme project from the Ndonga Linena

constituency, were purposively selected for this study. As per the statistics from the

national census in 2001 and 2011, the Kavango region (now Kavango East and West)

remains one of the poorest regions in Namibia, despite being host to seven of the eleven

Green Scheme Projects countrywide. This poses a series of questions on the areas of

awareness, integration and capacity building of one of the Green Scheme Programme’s

target population; the smallholder farming communities also known as small scale

farmers (SSFs). A case study using semi-structured questionnaires and face to face

interviews was employed to investigate three factors for this study. Respondents for this

study were randomly selected. The findings revealed that, only 45.2% of the participants

within the Mukwe constituency indicated they were aware of the opportunity of

becoming small scale farmers within the Green Schemes and a lower proportion from

the Ndonga Linena constituency (37.5%). In terms of integration, the study uncovered

that, there have not been any small scale farmers recruitment for the past five years and a

majority of those integrated suggested they need trainings in the use of modern farm

machinery and up to date horticultural trainings. From the findings, it is clear that more

needs to be done in terms of enhancing community awareness, integration as well as

capacity building of small scale (smallholder) farmers if the Green Scheme Programme

(GSP) is to realise its objectives of poverty reduction and food security in general and in

the Kavango region in particular. This study, therefore recommends that, awareness and

skills transfer programmes be developed for each Green Scheme project and their

corresponding host communities as informed by periodic need-gap analysis.