Agritourism kept farm afloat during drought

While tourism plays an important role in the Namibian economy, agritourism adds considerable value on a farm level in this arid country. Annelie Coleman visited the Mount D'Urban camping site near Helmeringhausen to find out more about tourism's contribution to the business.

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According to Kobus de Klerk, who owns the Mount D’Urban Campsite in partnership with his wife Kirsty and his parents Boeta and Mariette on the family farm near Helmeringhausen, the tourism concern has played a vital role in keeping the farming business afloat during taxing seasons of severe drought.

“Namibia went through a devastating drought between about 2012 and 2019. The campsite played a valuable role in 2019, when the drought was at its worst. The campsite was able to supplement enough income to cover some of the farm’s running costs. In some ways it took pressure off having to sell more stock to buy feed during the drought. Value-wise, in today’s market, it could probably be worked back to roughly 200 marketable lambs,” he says.

The farm is situated in the south-western part of Namibia, 23km north of Helmeringhausen. Separated by the Swartrand mountain range, it stretches about 9 000ha from the edge of the mountain range westward, while the remaining 13 000ha is situated on top of the Swartrand range, extending eastward for about 10km.

The farming business consists primarily of commercial cattle and goat production. In the 1970s, the farm belonged to Consolidated Diamond Mining and was drawn on to supply the operations in Oranjemund with meat products for their workforce.

Remnants of the old feedlots can still be found on the farm today. Coming from the Eastern Cape, the De Klerk family partnership bought the farm in December 1985. It was stocked with cattle and they introduced Angora goats, which was a first for the area, as karakul had predominantly been farmed in the region.