(see project photos below)

Introduction (Jan – Jun 2015)

The DiHoko Project started as a pilot project since 2012, where the local community was introduced to veggie tunnel gardening. During January 2015 and 'agreement of co-operation as partners' was signed between the Divundu Horticulture Projects (DHP) and the Evangelical Bible Church (EBC) upon whose land the project was launched.

The Vision is to start a horticulture training centre at Divundu, training individuals and local communities in the skills of vegetable horticulture in veggie tunnels, open cropping and permaculture. To be able to ensure sustainability, irrigation was installed at DiHoko. The target date to have this vision implemented is December 2017.

DHP who is driving the project technically, will endeavor to get the training courses approved by the Namibian NQA as well. Until then internal courses and training material will be used. The final objective is the have a sustainable training centre operating as an example, from where students will be trained as mentioned above.

Present situation

There is 4 Ha of possible land available, but the pilot project was started on 1 Ha, to get familiarized with the area, the land and possible crop diseases. An irrigation system was installed in the 11 veggie tunnels, the ‘middle garden’, the kitchen garden and the ladies garden. The latter are smaller independent gardens, adding to the total planting area.

 A planting calendar was introduced with multi cropping, but it was soon realized that the small area will only lend itself to 3 seasonal mono crops per annum, to be able to get the attention of the Agro Marketing & Trading Agency (AMTA) which is driven by the Namibian Government. At present the planned harvest will be Drumhead cabbage by the middle to end of August 2015. The plan is to plant potatoes after that and then during January 2016, tomatoes.

The biggest issue experienced as pest is grasshoppers, who devour the seedlings during the very early stages and pesticides can take protection only so far. Manual labour is used to catch and eliminate it from the gardens.

The irrigation system had its challenges as well, as the available electrical power is single phase. This limits the pump sizes and causes supply voltage drops, which has to be managed. Yet, the system is irrigating well and the pumps are switched automatically, with timers, making life easier. The total garden is divided into ‘blocks’ of sprayers as the pumps cannot deliver enough water to irrigate everything at the same time. The timers are set such, that there is a ‘period of rest’ between watering the blocks, during which valves are changed to deliver water to the alternate blocks.

A “valve matrix” was installed as well to ensure that water can be delivered from the 3 pumps to any of the 3 blocks or sub-gardens, by switching valves in the matrix. This was done to ensure flexibility during pump breakdowns.

Regular soil tests will be done, to ensure that the soil fertility is optimum and that the correct amounts of organic fertilizer and minerals are added before each planting cycle. DiHoko has a very sandy soil which needs regular replenishment. DHP is a registered member of the Namibia Organic Association (NOA) which means that all cropping will be done organically. The project is in a ‘transition phase’ at present and will reach the point where certification will be sought from the NOA.

There are 3 houses on the DiHoko premises that needs maintenance fairly urgent and it is planned for, to do this maintenance as soon as the income justifies it. All 3 houses have water, solar geysers and electricity. Water is pumped from the Okavango River into storage tanks for domestic use. 

There is a small church on the premises from which services are held every Sunday. EBC has members from the wider area, attending regularly.

The 4 Ha at DiHoko is fenced although local community cattle damage it out of desperation to get hold of the existing grass and bush, in areas which has not been cultivated yet.

The DiHoko Project has been giving work for about 52 local community members on a ‘round robin’ basis, by their own request. Part of the Mission is to remain as labour intensive as possible, for this reason. More people will benefit, obviously, as the current 1 Ha will be extended to 4 Ha of cultivation.

On the 18^th of June 2015 AMTA visited the project and approved it to become a contracted supplier. The agreements will be drawn up and signed and the new planting calendars will be finalized.

Future plans

At present the short term goal is to have at least 3 successful planting and harvesting cycles. This will improve DHP and EBC’s confidence and will make it easier to seek added funding for the other 3 Ha’s expansion costs.

As mentioned before, this project is to become a ‘local training center’ in the Kavango East region to train local community members in vegetable growing for local consumption and commercial purposes. Some of the persons who are working in the project, are already planting their own gardens based on what they learn and experience at DiHoko.

I am enrolled in a Permaculture Design Course to be able to start with permaculture training in future and to apply the principles at DiHoko and to some of the villages right next to DiHoko, as working examples for students in future courses.

Everything is going well although progress is slower than anticipated, but we are confident that the end result will bring great joy.

The 2 persons who are managing and supervising the project on site are Anton Mberema and Emmanuel Muyumba.

Submitted by Albie Oelofse

(Administrator DHP)