Concerns over potential conflicts of interest and limited operational capacity are emerging as key challenges facing the Namibia Agronomic Board (NAB) as it works to expand food safety compliance standards across the country’s agricultural sector, according to a report by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD).
The report found that the NAB’s dual role as both trainer and regulator under the GLOBALG.A.P. programme is creating operational pressures as the organisation seeks to support more farmers while simultaneously monitoring compliance.
Through its partnership with GLOBALG.A.P., the board is responsible for helping farmers meet internationally recognised food safety and sustainability standards that are increasingly required for access to local, regional and European markets.
As part of the programme, the NAB provides training, technical support, on-farm assessments and guidance on record-keeping and food safety management systems.
However, it is also tasked with verifying whether producers comply with those same standards.
“NAB faces its own operational hurdles. As both trainer and regulator, it must balance the dual responsibilities of supporting farmers and monitoring their compliance, an overlap that raises concerns about conflicts of interest and limits its capacity to scale services,” the report said.
The IISD report further highlighted financial and logistical constraints as significant barriers to expanding compliance programmes nationwide.
Providing training and conducting farm assessments across the country remains costly, forcing the NAB to operate within the limits of its levy-funded budget and restricting the number of farmers it can assist each year.
“Financial and logistical limitations compound these challenges. Providing nationwide training and assessments is costly, and NAB must operate within its levy-funded budget to determine how many farmers it can support each year,” the report said.
The report also noted that many small-scale producers continue to face infrastructure challenges and struggle to maintain the record-keeping and documentation systems required to meet compliance standards.
Laboratory testing has emerged as another major obstacle. According to the report, testing agricultural chemicals and materials remains expensive due to relatively low testing volumes, increasing the cost of compliance verification for both producers and the board.
Despite the challenges, the NAB continues to expand the adoption of GLOBALG.A.P. principles across Namibia’s agronomic and horticultural sectors as part of efforts to improve food safety standards and strengthen market access opportunities for local producers.
The board is also considering extending similar support to grain producers in future.
“These issues represent important challenges that NAB must tackle as it expands GLOBALG.A.P. practices and principles across its agricultural and horticultural sectors, including potential expansion into other crops such as grains,” the report said.
