The Namibian Dare to Care Disaster Fund is standing at R2.2 million.

Ryno van der Merwe, president of the Namibian Agricultural Union (NAU), said the fund had made it possible to subsidise more than 40 000 bags of animal feed to date.

Van der Merwe told Farmer’s Weekly that Namibia was suffering the worst drought in recent history, with the entire country affected by the dry conditions.

The distribution of the fodder would start early next month, he said.

The fund is a partnership between NAU, the Namibia Emerging Commercial Farmers’ Union (NECFU) and the private sector, and is administered by NAU.

According to Van der Merwe, the aim was to support communal, emerging and commercial farmers, who had been negatively affected by the drought.

“Our objective is to raise R10 million as soon as possible. We are committed to complete transparency and we have appointed independent auditors to audit the fund,” Van der Merwe said.

While feed donations would not be distributed directly to farmers, purchases of animal feed, including whole yellow maize, sheep fattening pellets, cattle fattening feed and lucerne pellets would be subsidised.

“The situation is dire. Livestock herds have been cut dramatically and large-scale animal deaths are reported almost daily. Game farmers have also been hard hit and game animals are succumbing to the drought in droves,” Van der Merwe said.