Govt avails AgriFinance for farmers

GOVERNMENT’S AgriFinance Scheme is intended to stimulate agricultural production, provide employment and income generation.

The scheme, which was developed by the Ministry of Agriculture and implemented earlier this year, is run in conjunction with AgriBank, and provides farmers with the necessary collateral to stock their landholdings with either livestock or crops.Ministry of Agriculture Permanent Secretary Andrew Ndishishi said that although many farmers acquire loans from commercial banks to purchase land, these farmers often lack the collateral to obtain more funds to purchase livestock and crops.The collateral for such loans is provided by the Agriculture Ministry and AgriBank on a 80/20 split, with 80 per cent of the amount being covered by the Government and the remaining 20 per cent by AgriBank.Ndishishi said that many farmers have complained that they do not produce enough on their farms to service their loan repayments. Furthermore, crop and livestock farming present enough of a risk for banks to be reluctant to provide the necessary collateral, and the Agriculture Ministry PS said that Government is prepared to back those farmers and ensure that they become self-sustainable.The aim of the AgriFinance Scheme is primarily to stimulate agricultural production, which Ndishishi says is seen by his ministry as a catalyst to industrial development. ‘The scheme will create jobs, generate incomes, stimulate the development of other industries and result in increased economic activity and growth,’ the PS said.The AgriFinance Scheme was implemented earlier this year and has already delivered numerous results, especially in the Kavango Region. He said that any person can apply for assistance through the scheme, provided that the person has a plot, which is properly demarcated, can prove their ownership of the property, and that they have a business plan.The scheme would also assist farmers with value addition. This means that it would assist farmers with infrastructure development on their properties that would allow them to process the raw materials they produce.At present, there is no such mechanism in the market, and Ndishishi said that while such a scheme involves a protracted development process, which involves consultation with numerous stakeholders, the ministry was hopeful that it would be able to launch such a comprehensive scheme.

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