The Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Land Reform plans to issue a Request For Proposals (RFP) for the Green Schemes in May, as it moves ahead to outsource some of the projects to the private sector.
The development comes as incessant challenges at the Agricultural Business Development Agency (AgriBusDev) has seen Cabinet approving the cancellation of the memorandum of understanding between the Ministry of Agriculture and the government owned entity established in 2011 to monitor and create an ideal environment for achieving the objectives of the green schemes, as defined by the green scheme policy of 2008.
“As per Cabinet decision, it was resolved that some of the Green Schemes Projects will be outsourced to the private sector through a competitive bidding process. An interinstitutional committee is established to assess the status of the schemes and formulate the Request For Proposals (RFP),with the first set stage of the RFPs expected to be published not later than May 2022,” Agriculture minister, Calle Schlettwein said.
This comes as the ministry has budgeted N$9 million to support Green Schemes Projects’ reform activity among other obligations.
The development which is being resisted by some business groupings, comes as Schlettwein in November last year revealed that government was exploring Public Private Partnerships for the development and operation of Green Schemes especially the commercial components thereof including through Venture Capital Funding and other funding avenues that may be available.
The targeted schemes being Zone irrigation project in Kavango West Region, Tandjieskoppe Irrigation Project in //Kharas Region and Katima- Liselo Irrigation Project in Zambezi Region.
Meanwhile the ministry is proposing to spend N$178.5 million in the 2022/23 financial year to acquire land for resettlement.
In the previous financial year, the ministry revised its land acquisition target from 37 500 hectares of agricultural commercial land to 17 805, citing budget constraints and acquired 21 455 hectares at cost of N$30 million.
