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DEPUTY Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development David Marapira has said the Government through the Lands Ministry is gearing up to facilitate security of tenure to dairy farmers to give them the confidence to capitalise operations on their farms using their resources.
Addressing delegates at the Zimbabwe Association of Dairy Farmers’s 10th annual general meeting this week, Deputy Minister Marapira noted that the coming on-board of the leasing companies in financial institutions such as Agricultural Finance Corporation and CBZ has also enabled the capacitation of dairy farming sector by availing mechanisation facilities for all scales of farmers.
“Although the Zimbabwean Government has made some advances in broadening access to credit, most dairy farmers still do not have access to affordable credit. Financial products currently available on the market are short-term, with very high interest rates and are targeting working capital,” said Deputy Minister Marapira.
He added “Such products do not suit the dairy sector which needs a medium to long-term investment. Also, most farmers have no security of tenure so they lack collateral for loans through banks and additionally an absence of alternative financing facilities, especially from Government.
“The Government through our Ministry will therefore try its best to facilitate security of tenure to our Dairy farmers to give them confidence to capitalise operations on their farms using their own resources.”
He said the Government is urging financial services providers such as AFC, CBZ and others to develop a financing framework, services and products which ensure that farmers are capacitated to be more productive and at the same time be able to repay loan obligation.
More importantly, he said there is a need to ring-fence the financier’s money by engaging the commercial off-taker, processors in this case.
He told delegates that the Government resolved to re-capitalise the Dairy Revitalisation Fund through the five percent levy on imported dairy products.
“This presents an opportunity for setting up a friendly financing model for dairy farmers and to ensure capacitation for improved efficiency targeting growth and competitiveness of the sector. I understand that since its inception, dairy farmers have not yet had access to this fund and ZADF has been engaging the Government and AFC on the modalities for its utilization. This will boost dairy development in Zimbabwe as we move towards meeting our 2025 national milk production target. The Ministry will therefore engage all parties involved in collection, release and utilization of this five percent Levy to ensure that our dairy farmers urgently benefit from this fund.”
The performance of the dairy sub-sector is important for the growth of the national economy, job creation and food security in Zimbabwe.
Critical to the viability, growth and sustenance of any sector is its primary production base which is milk production at farm level in the case of the dairy sector. Secondary production has been realising significant growth in terms of sales and volumes.
” On this note, Government will continue to push for an inclusive approach to wealth generation and distribution so that the national economy, farmers, stakeholders and communities receive maximum benefit from the value created along the value chain,” said the deputy minister.
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