Agriculture minister Inge Zaamwani says the government will operationalise the NCA Price Equalisation Fund (NPEF) this year.

The fund aims to ensure farmers in the northern communal areas (NCA) receive the same prices for their cattle as farmers south of the veterinary cordon fence.

Zaamwani says the government has already made provision for the fund.

“We have also invested in the equalisation fund, which is meant for the Meat Corporation of Namibia (Meatco), so that when they buy cattle from farmers, they can pay the same price as farmers in this part of the country are receiving,” she said during a presentation to parliament’s standing committee on urban and rural development and land reform on the status of the redline and the resettlement programme on Wednesday.

Zaamwani said the fund was available last year but was not implemented because of disagreements between the institutions involved.

She said those issues have now been addressed and the fund will be put into operation this year.

Approved by Cabinet in 2024, the N$100 million fund aims to compensate livestock producers north of the redline for the price differences they face compared to farmers south of the veterinary cordon fence.

Two months ago, the agriculture ministry said formal cattle marketing in the NCA stood at only 1.5% of the total cattle population. At that time, the ministry said the situation limits income opportunities for communal farmers and affects the growth of the livestock sector in the region.

The NPEF fund replaces the Livestock Marketing Incentive Scheme for the NCA, which was introduced in 2015 to help farmers cope with difficult cattle marketing conditions. The programme was later discontinued after abattoirs in the NCA stopped operating.

In the 2026/27 national budget, the government allocated N$50 million to the fund.

The Namibian National Farmers Union last year urged the ministry to speed up implementation of the fund, saying delays were slowing the development of communal farming.

In January, Meatco revealed that the office of the prime minister owed N$28.1 million to producers who supplied livestock under last year’s drought relief programme.

The same month, the government settled close to N$30 million in outstanding invoices.

Zaamwani said meat produced in the NCA is already reaching consumers south of the redline through commodity-based trading protocols.

“As we speak, meat from the NCA may already be coming to this part of the country through the commodity-based trading protocols. You may be eating a steak in a restaurant, and the chances are high that the meat is coming from the NCA because we do not have enough supply here and most of the meat is going to the export market,” she said.

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