Published by the government of Zimbabwe
Sydney Kawadza
7 September 2009
Harare — Farmers will use offer letters and 99-year leases as collateral security to access loans to purchase farming inputs being distributed under the recently launched US$210 million Government Input Support Scheme for 2009/10 farming season.
Vice President Joice Mujuru launched the farming input facility at Murehwa Centre last Thursday and members of the inclusive Government are expected to launch similar schemes in other parts of the country soon.
In an interview last Friday, Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Acting Minister Ignatious Chombo said farmers could also pool their resources to access the loans through group lending schemes.
The farming inputs scheme launched in Murehwa last Thursday will cater for A1, A2, smallholder and large-scale commercial farmers and will be distributed through wide networks of GMB depots and other distribution points to be established across the country.
"The farmers will decide the inputs they would want and their quantities. They will then approach any bank of their choice for a loan to access the inputs.
"They can use either their offer letters, 99-year leases or any properties that conform with the banks' requirements to apply for the loans.
"The banks through their agronomists will then establish whether the loan application would be reasonable for the farmer to get the loans," he said.
Minister Chombo said A1 or A2 farmers could also form groups and approach the banks for group lending schemes.
"They will then have to pool their resources including livestock to use as collateral in their applications.
"Their leadership and Agritex official will serve as signatories for the loan applications," he said.
Minister Chombo said the farmers did not have to sell their livestock because the loans would be paid after the farmers had harvested their crops.
"The idea of group lending will also assist in preventing side marketing by some unscrupulous farmers," he said.
Under the scheme, farmers will get vouchers to be used when collecting the inputs from the 84 GMB depots in the country.
More collection points will be established to reduce the distance farmers in areas that are far away from the GMB depots have to travel.
Farmers with large quantities of inputs, Minister Chombo said, would also get transport provisions under the scheme.
He said to date inputs worth US$100 million were already made available and ready for distribution through the nationwide GMB depot networks.
Minister Chombo said the implementation framework, which is user friendly, transparent, auditable and accountable had been agreed upon by Government, the four farmers' unions, the Bankers Association of Zimbabwe and the GMB.
"The programme is part of a well-conceived and integrated strategic intervention by the Government with the view to enhance the contribution of the agricultural sector to the turn-around of the economy," he said.
Meanwhile, Minister Chombo said more schemes were being considered to cater for other farmers who were not eligible for the scheme.
He said Government had identified 630 000 families to benefit from a scheme that was meant for communal and other disadvantaged members of the community.
"We are targeting one million families that would receive seed packs of 50kg each of ammonium nitrate and compound D fertilizers and a 10kg bag of seed," he said.
Minister Chombo also hailed the programmes saying they would also complement other efforts being made to enhance agriculturL production this forthcoming season.
"Last year, farmers had the money to buy the inputs, but there was nothing on the market for the farmers.
"This year, farmers who do not favour the Government scheme can also buy the inputs from the retailers as the manufacturing sector has ensured that inputs are readily available on the market," he said.
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This is legalized daylight robbery by these thugs. So in other words they want the farmers to borrow the money, get the farms developed and flourishing and then turn around and say to the farmers the lease has been canceled so get out, and then they move in. Are these farmers going to fall for this?
Offer Letters Valid for Hare-Brained Scheme!
Offer letters and 99-year leases can be used as security for farm input loans, says Joice Mujuru. Even though we can issue new offer letters at anytime and invalidate a lease; banks will throw away their money just because we say so. And even though we garauntee the loans we don't really have any money except for what Gono can print for us.
We have set up a massive beuruacracy where farmers can get tied up in red tape and jump thru hoops. There will be 1 beuruacrat for every 10 farmers to put additional unnescessary burden on them. And if a beuraucrat or one of his a relations wants a farm he will have the power to forge his own offer letter.
Isn't this a wonderful scheme!