The Meatco Foundation embarked on a trip to Rundu in the north of Namibia from 20 to 22 September 2016. The visit was aimed at looking at the outcomes of the Sustainable Cattle Production Project in the Northern Communal Area (NCA) along with stakeholders, in a bid to share the achievements and to create a platform for discussions. The project began in 2013 and ended in November 2015.

In essence, the project looked at four pillars of intervention in the communal farming areas to improve cattle quality and increase market access for farmers. As part of the Meatco Foundation’s commitment, donors and those interested in seeing the impact and achievements of the project first-hand, went along on the trip.

Participants included representatives from Solidaridad Netherlands (South Africa and Zambia); the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (GRSB); the European Union; GPS, monitoring and evaluation personnel of the Meatco Foundation; Conservation Agriculture Namibia (CAN); the Namibia National Farmers Union (NNFU); the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry (MAWF); the Ministry of Lands and Resettlement (MLR); and  the Communal Land Development Project funded by the Deutsche Gesellschaft fϋr Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). Representatives of the Kavango Traditional Authority as well as the Kavango Livestock Marketing Cooperative also attended.

“The preparation of the docking station for the Mobile Slaughter Unit (MSU), which was funded by Solidaridad through the Meatco Foundation, was one of the highlights of the trip as well as witnessing the quality of animals produced through the Meatco-owned-Cattle (MoC) initiative and seeing the unit in action,” says Executive: Meatco Foundation, Kingsley Kwenani.

The project aimed at enabling 2400 subsistence farmers to sustainably manage their livestock while commercialising livestock in the NCA for local and regional markets.

To sum up, the visitors were pleased with the quality of animals and the hygienic standards practised at the unit.