Namibia’s first female poultry farmer of the year

After walking away with a N$5 000 voucher from Women in Agriculture and Feedmaster, 37-year-old Ndasilohenda Katangolo-Nakashwa believes there is space for everyone in agriculture.

When she and her husband first bought chicks, she did not imagine she would have a backyard filled with chickens that are providing an income for her family and food on her table. Ndinandali Poultry, situated in Omusimboti, Oshana Region, is the name of her business.

She was inspired to enter the competition because she wanted to show others how to start a business at a small scale and grow it into something bigger. “You do not need a lot of money to start and I think that is what discourages a lot of farmers,” she said.

Helvi Shindume, the founder and chairperson of Women in Agriculture, said the initiative was inspired by their mandate, which is to recognise and strengthen women’s contributions to the agricultural sector.

“We collaborated with FeedMaster for the poultry category, and for July, we would focus on the agritech category with Agra and then in August, we will be looking at organic farming. We want to make this an annual event and we would like to call upon other stakeholders to come on board and help us celebrate our Namibian farmers,” Shindume said.

Celebrate women farmers

Beata Auala, technical advisor for FeedMaster explained that their organisation wants to help poultry farmers by educating them on how to feed poultry and by providing farm visits.

“During our farm visits, we have realised that most farmers only keep their chickens in chicken houses during cultivation season and let them loose during harvest due to the fear of chickens destroying mahangu fields. We however advise our farmers to keep their chickens in the houses all year as it keeps them safe from predators and it also minimises the spread of diseases. We want all our farmers to move ahead in the poultry business,” Auala underlined.