Economic task force calls for urgent deal with SA to rescue FMD-hit farmers

The Presidential Task Force on Economic Recovery and Transformation has urged the government to urgently negotiate a bilateral trade arrangement with South Africa to rescue Namibia’s livestock industry from the economic impact of foot-and-mouth disease. In a statement issued last week, task force chairperson Dagmar Honsbein says the outbreak is threatening farming businesses, jobs and export earnings, despite the government’s successful veterinary response in containing the disease. “FMD seldom kills a beast, but it easily destroys a farming business,” he says, warning that prolonged market closures were putting the entire livestock value chain under pressure. The outbreak, confirmed in the