Namibia country report

Herman who farmed on a portion of Skoonheid also had a small piece of land on whichhe cultivated maize and beans. Its size was probably smaller than a football pitch. He tookhis maize to a farmer in the vicinity to be milled into flour. His field did not yield enoughfor own consumption and feeding his chickens, but it helped. A shortage of labour powerprevented him from enlarging the field, but people from the Skoonheid group resettlementproject helped him.In addition to cultivating a small piece of land, Herman made tombstones. He referred tothis as a hobby that started before he was resettled. After resettlement, the MLR gave himfinancial support for buying shovels, a wheelbarrow, troughs, cement and steel. There was agood market for his tombstones. When people placed orders, he demanded a deposit beforestarting the job, and delivered only when the full outstanding amount had been paid.In Hardap, diversification was limited to very few farms with enough water to irrigate. Onesuch farm was Mara, which was settled on the assumption that beneficiaries would focuson irrigated crop production. This was still happening on a very limited scale, but the mainsource of income for beneficiaries there was the sale of small stock. The full potential ofirrigable land on FURS farms in Hardap has not been exploited in most cases. On Mara,for example, only 2.5 ha are being cultivated by three beneficiaries, and crop production isgenerally low. A factor that impacted negatively on the marketing of crops was the absenceof timely and organised transport arrangements. Quite often when crops were ready formarketing, transport was lacking to get them to the markets.Crop cultivation at Mara, Hardap.Livelihoods after Section Land B ● Reform: 5. Farm Namibia Unit Resettlement country report Scheme (2010) ● 107