Meatco informed communal and emerging commercial farmers at Gam near the Eiseb River how to obtain the best price for slaughter cattle. Thirty-two farmers were shown recently how to establish when cattle are ready for slaughter as well as how to estimate what price it will fetch. This way, farmers can make an educated guess as to where they will earn the best price for their cattle anytime of the year. In a continued drive to present communal farmers with an alternative market for slaughter cattle, Meatco presented information on the grading of animals according to age and fatness as well as to price adaptations related to carcass weight. Other information that farmers were presented with included marketing procedures and cost of marketing with special reference to transport costs. The training for farmers at Gam is the third of its kind that Meatco has offered in communal areas south of the Veterinary Cordon Fence since the beginning of 2006. More training sessions are scheduled to provide communal and emerging commercial farmers with insight into the various markets available to cattle farmers.

The annual summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) ended in Lesotho with an undertaking to improve the investment climate and a call for serious introspection by countries as a Free Trade Area target fast approaches. Leaders of the 14-member economic and political bloc approved the SADC Protocol on Finance and Investment, which aims to harmonise financial and investment policies of member states and ensure that changes in policies in one country do not affect other countries.

The protocol is an important stepping stone for the region, which targets a free trade area by 2008 and a SADC customs union in 2010. The Finance Protocol was signed by seven of the member states – Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, South Africa and the United Republic of Tanzania. Other SADC member states – Angola, Botswana, Malawi, Namibia, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe – require approvals of their parliaments or the concurrency of their Attorney General before signing protocols. SADC plans a common monetary area in 2015 and single SADC currency ten years from now in 2010.

The leaders also noted with concern the high rate of mortality among women and children, resolved to keep programmes to combat and mitigate the spread of HIV, and AIDS high on the regional agenda. It was agreed to increase such programmes within the context of the Maseru Declaration on Combating HIV and AIDS of 2004. Lesotho pledged US$100,000 towards the Regional AIDS Fund, becoming the second country after South Africa to do so. (SARDC News)

Namibia might make use of a large shrub to produce bio oil to be blended into diesel fuel, which would reduce imports and might decrease the fuel price. Last week over 80 stakeholders from government and the private sector met in Windhoek and considered a draft final consultancy report on the "National Bio-Oil Energy Road Map" and agreed that the oil nut bearing shrub Jatropha curcas is currently viewed as the most feasible plant for dry-land cultivation to extract of bio-oil.

The most suitable areas where it can grow approximately in the same areas as maize can grow but only in the less frost like in Caprivi, Okavango and the "maize triangle".

Jatropha is suited to small-holder as well as large-scale farming. It is envisaged to plant. 63,000 hectares of Jatropha in Namibia by 2013. This translates to an industry, which would contribute an additional N$ 189 million in GDP to the Namibian economy. Based on prices of the year 2005, this would contribute 0.5% growth of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The workshop participants were informed that the oil from the Jatropha nut could be blended into commercial diesel, probably up to 5%, as is already law in many developed countries and that it could be used for decentralised on-farm and at village-level blending into agricultural diesel. The bio-oil could also replace paraffin and could be used for soap making. Participants agreed to establish a National Bio-Oil Energy Committee (NABEC) to be run under the auspices of the Namibia Agronomic Board.

Jatropha already grows in Namibia since the last 100 years. According to Christof Brock, manager of the Namibia Agronomic Board, rural farmers could plant Jatropha as hedges and harvest the nuts or commercial farmers could plant several hectares. The nuts can be harvested three years after planting.