The Livestock and Livestock Product Board (LLPB) is collaborating with the Directorate of Veterinary Services (DVS) to repair and electrify 25km of the veterinary cordon fence (VCF) to the west of the Namapan Veterinary Gate.
The project is funded using N$2 million allocated from the LLPB’s annual budget.
The LLPB, through this collaboration, has spent approximately N$8 million over the past four years since the initiative began in 2020.
LLPB Chief Marketing Officer Desmond Cloete said the maintenance is necessary to maintain Namibia’s animal health status as recognised by the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), especially in the foot-and-mouth disease (FMD)-free zone.
“There have been frequent elephant breakages of the fence. Therefore, LLPB aims to complete the repair and electrification of a total of 75km before the end of the 2024 financial year,” Cloete said.
“The LLPBN on an annual basis coordinates the repair and electrification of the VCF with DVS. The VCF runs over 1,300km from west to east and its objective is to assist in the maintenance of the animal health status of the area south of the VCF. This enables access to lucrative markets such as the European Union, Norway, United States of America, United Kingdom, China and very soon the Gulf Cooperation Council,” he added.
In addition, Cloete said the maintenance programme came as a result of the ever-increasing influx of humans in the traditional grazing areas of elephants, forcing the jumbos to migrate south of the VCF, thus increasing the maintenance cost to unsustainable levels.
“These hot spots were identified for electrification and due to budget constraints, it’s done in phases. This is an annual budgeted activity and will continue for the foreseeable future,” stated Cloete.
Subsequently, he said the industry established a maintenance of FMD-free status task force that, amongst others, looked into mobilising the private sector to get involved in the maintenance of the VCF.
In addition, this task force also looks into establishing an FMD-free zone in the Northern Communal Areas (NCAs) thus moving the VCF north and including parts of the NCAs into the FMD-free zone to access lucrative markets.
“The maintenance and repairs can be approximately 200km, while electrification is short dedicated distances of about 25km. Meanwhile, in 2023 LLPB electrified 100km between Namibia and Botswana for around N$1.2 million. And this year we aim to electrify 75km of which 25km has been successfully completed,” he said.
