The Star (Nairobi)

Kenya: Agriculture Finance Corporation to Give Farmers U.S.$23.3 Million in Loans

The Agricultural Finance Corporation is giving out more than Sh2 billion to farmers. The organisation is distributing money, whose aim is to boost food production, to farmers who applied for loans in various branches.

"We are ready to support farmers as usual," said managing director Lucas Meso. Schools with huge tracts of land will be eligible to get loans from the organisation to produce their own food.

The loans are offered at a discounted interest rate of 10 per cent annually. However, there has been an increase in the cost of farm inputs

Kenya Seed Company has increased maize seed prices by more than 30 per cent while the price of fertilizer has also gone up after the National Cereals and Produce Board failed to import the subsidised fertiliser.

"Its good that farmers are now accessing support from the AFC, but the government is letting them down by not acting on the issue of fertiliser and seeds", said Kenya Farmers Association director Kipkorir Menjo.

He said the increased costs will cut down productivity and profits for farmers making it difficult to repay the loans from AFC.AFC supports more than 35,000 farmers every year but is target more than 100,000 to help triple food production in all parts of Kenya.

  • Comment

Copyright © 2013 The Star. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.

AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 130 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.

Comments Post a comment