Placido Hilukilwa
WHEN General Epaphras Denga Ndaitwah is mentioned, everyone knows that he is the First Gentleman; former Chief of the Namibian Defence Force; a prominent academician; veteran of the liberation struggle; and a successful mahangu farmer at his Onheleiwa home village in the Okongo area of the Ohangwena Region.
LIttle do people know that he has now also added fruit production.
His pioneering initiative kicked off recently with the cultivation of 210 mango trees on two hectares of fertile land — what he said was in response to the Government’s call on citizens to intensify and diversify agricultural production to ensure food self-sufficiency in the country.
General Ndaitwah said that he had no prior experience in this particular field but had to adapt quickly after Ambassador George Liswaniso from the Zambezi Region donated such a large number of young mango trees to the First Family.
“I planned to plant the trees right away, but was advised that that is not how things work,” he said.
Besides the proper preparation of the land itself and putting up watering pipes, he also needed a really large amount of compost — 105 bags of 50 kg each — which he acquired from a factory in Okahandja.
And as he learned, planting fruit-bearing trees such as mango is not just a matter of placing the young tree in any hole dug in the sand.
The hole has to be of a specific size, the right amount of compost has to be put in each hole, and the trees have to be properly spaced. Watering is also done following appropriate steps.
The benefits will be enormous for the local community once the orchard starts bearing fruit — between 500 and 1,000 mangoes per tree — which General Ndaitwah expects to be in about four years’ time.
The project has, of course, already created employment opportunities for individuals who take care of the orchard on a full-time basis, maintaining tree health and pest control.
The First Family is also doing farming commercially well.
