Barclays helps young farmers

Samuel Kadungure Farming Reporter
A PACT involving Barclays Bank and the Zimbabwe Farmers Union (ZFU) that saw the former injecting $412 209 to assist young farmers in seven rural provinces so that they can afford to start businesses and eventually gain self-sufficiency – has start bearing fruit in Manicaland.

The deal is coupled by training in financial inclusion, financial literacy and honing of young farmers’ entrepreneurial skills – which are important steps in development, as access to finances can help the poor build money and lift themselves out of poverty.

Limited funding is one of the main reasons of the decline of Zimbabwe’s agriculture sector as farmers face problems in accessing farm loans from financial institutions in the country.

Lack of financial literacy among farmers is one of many factors leading to financial exclusion, for an understanding of finances is necessary to the utilisation of financial services.

Therefore, financial literacy initiatives by Barclays Bank to train young farmers in good financial practices and to make good financial decisions are a timely remedy to address shortcomings of microfinance in the country.

Financial inclusion enables greater food production and food security and has proved a critical infrastructure for expanding equitable growth, combating poverty and hunger, and creating jobs for young people.

Young Farmers’ Innovation Lab Programme chairperson Mr David Rore said young farmers know that they must sow before they can reap and what they need was a supportive infrastructure to enable them to do their job.

“Young farmers now shoulder most of the burden of feeding the nation, but they do not enjoy the range of support and services they deserve, let alone need. We are grateful to Barclays Bank and ZFU for coming up with this initiative. As you can see, the financial institution has made funding available coupled with the requisite training in financial literacy, inclusion and entrepreneurial skills.

“Access to formal credit also has a positive impact. The challenge has been that young farmers lacked credit histories because they do not get credit, and for as long as they do not get credit, they will never get a credit history. The initiative by Barclays and ZFU is the best way to break this vicious circle by allowing young farmers to secure loans and have access to new forms of technology. This will allow them to innovate and to improve their farming,” said Mr Rore.

ZFU provincial manager Mr Lloyd Mataya said all smallholder young farmers deserve a supporting infrastructure.

He said getting there will take a coordinated approach involving many partners like ministries of finance and agriculture, the central bank, commercial banks, mobile network operators, private sector in general, payment service providers, and certainly the farmers’ organisations.

Financial services enable young farmers to generate income and insulate themselves from income shocks.

Research shows that financial inclusion is a necessary component for delivering any ambitious goal to end hunger and eradicate rural poverty.

Zimbabwe cannot end hunger and increase smallholder productivity and incomes without it.

Barclays Bank official Mr Wonder Nyabereka said savings allow farmers to invest in their businesses and increase yields and provides a reserve to draw on when they are affected by bad weather or other setbacks.

He said the financial institution advocates a “plan first” approach to financial education that puts business planning at the heart of support programmes for young farmers.

The farmers benefiting from the fund were chosen from a pool of active members of the ZFU young farmers clubs.

The ZFU Young Farmers’ Innovation Lab Programme has posted positive results in Honde Valley, where two groups now supply dried bananas to supermarkets in Manicaland.

The programme was introduced mainly to strengthen entrepreneurship among young farmers in Zimbabwe according to the 2013-2017 Zimbabwe Agriculture Investment Plan which emphasises on the need to “facilitate a sustainable increase in production, productivity and competitiveness of Zimbabwean agriculture through building capacity of farmers and institutions, improving the quantity and quality of public, private and development partner investment and alignment”.

ZFU has facilitated the installation of four driers at Mapungwana and Mutarazi Irrigation Schemes, Gatsi and Hauna Business Centres in Honde Valley.

It also managed to secure partnerships with the University of Zimbabwe, Africa University and Harare Institute of Technology to work with the young farmers.

UZ and AU bring their students for industrial attachments, helping the young farmers to develop their projects, while HIT designs technological applications young farmers can use in their daily farming practices.

“We want to make agriculture attractive to young farmers through technology. Now farmers are able to do record keeping for their products on cell phones through applications being designed by HIT,” said Mr Mataya.

The farmers have also been assisted with greenhouse at Gatsi, building material for fowl runs in Wards 5 and 30.