A garden full of fruit and vegetables
A youthful and driven full-time communal farmer from the Etayi constituency has a passion and drive for agriculture and self-sufficiency.Joshua Hakapandi started his vegetable garden in the Okambebe area of the Omusati Region and currently plants tomatoes, spinach, chillies, carrots, onions, sweet potatoes, strawberries, granadillas, pomegranates and guavas, while he even has some banana trees.
According to Agribank, Hakapandi is not only an ambitious horticulturist, but also has cattle and goats which he maintains with by-products from the garden as well as pods from the vachellia erioloba, the camelthorn tree.
Hakapandi said Agribank’s women and youth training, funded by GIZ’s ‘Farming for Resilience’ project, motivated him to start with crop and fodder production.
The training taught him to plant, mulch, prune, transplant and fertilise trees, as well as to make compost.
He also learnt to boil neem tree leaves to use them as a pesticide and to use crop residues as feed for livestock.
Neem trees grow fast and tolerate drought-prone soil as well as poor growing conditions, he noted.
Providing for his family
“As with every farmer in our arid to semi-arid Namibia, Hakapandi faces challenges with water supply to his garden. Even though he buys water from NamWater, it is at a high cost, which he finds unaffordable,” Agribank said.
Hakapandi has since dug a well to supply his garden, but said it takes about a week for the well to fill.
He also operates another garden in Epalela with his friend, where they plant cabbages, pumpkins, tomatoes and other crops to meet the demand for these crops. Hakapandi added that he would like to expand his garden and have his own reliable water source such as a borehole and extend the fencing and infrastructure.
According to him, he is the main provider of tomatoes and spinach in the Okambebe area and supplies locals at household level and open markets.
Moreover, the income he makes provides for his family, which consists of his 14 siblings and relatives. He urged the youth to take it upon themselves to take action and produce food for their own sustenance and that of the nation.