BACKGROUND

The “De-bushing Advisory Service” (DAS) is an important capacity building aspect of the biomass industry in Namibia. DAS is a national information platform and focal point for questions relating to bush encroachment, bush thinning and value addition to bush, amongst others.

DAS addresses the skills, knowledge and information needs of potential actors in the industry. The DAS service portfolio sets the aim to develop structured capacity development programmes empowering critical resource people (farmers, workers, contractors and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to effectively implement sustainable bush control and biomass utilisation. The capacity measures are to lead to a large pool of qualified workers and farmers for bush harvesting and processing in Namibia.

The development of DAS emerged from a demand survey undertaken among farmers to assess their advisory need.