The Sunday News
Mhlupheki Dube
A STORY that was published in last week’s edition of this very paper lamenting the fact that there were few takers from Matabeleland region of an agricultural loan facility that was created by two international non-governmental organisations in partnership with a local trust and is distributed through various banks made sad reading. I was not surprised to be inundated with calls and text messages from followers of this column who either wanted to know more about the fund or simply wanted to vent their frustrations with the whole process.
One question which stuck out like a sore thumb which was also asked by Mr Liberty T Muleya, an ardent follower of this column, was why a facility, which was availed in 2010, was only being officially launched end of August 2014? How well was this facility advertised to the farmers and value chain players especially in rural areas where most of the genuine farmers reside?
I think bankers and administrators of this fund need to re-evaluate the process and come up with genuine and authentic reasons of why there are fewer takers for this fund in this region compared to other regions. They should avoid the temptation to parrot the same fictitious reason that people of this region have a general aversion for credit facilities when in some cases it is the process and product design which is inherently defective and not user friendly for farmers who are far from major cities such as the capital city. Administrators should ask themselves whether the requirements can be applied with the same results across different forms of agriculture for example. It is a no brainer that loan repayment periods which are designed with horticultural crops in mind cannot be just copied and pasted on livestock production as these will take a longer time to produce before one can think about selling.
I for one know several farmers in many districts in Matabeleland region who are in desperate need of loans to support their endeavours around feedlotting. There are farmers in Insiza, Lupane, Nkayi, Bulilima and Mangwe districts just to mention a few who are always pestering me about loan facilities to support their livestock projects and unfortunately I did not know about this facility either maybe I could have done what the communication departments of the fund creators and administrators seem to have dismally failed to do — disseminate the information to the target groups!
The other important question, which fund administrators should ask themselves, is around the user-friendliness of the process itself. The idea of being bounced from wall to another in offices before one can even begin to complete the forms is irritating and a little intimidating for some rural farmers. Why can’t the process be made simpler but still fulfil the mandatory requirements within the bank.
The notion that farmers in Matabeleland have a natural dislike for loans should be dismissed with the contempt it deserves because besides being stereotypical it is retrogressive and fuels unjustified prejudices. Instead of only asking what’s wrong with the consumers, should we not also ask what is wrong with our product? Maybe it’s not the consumer but the product. I know for a fact that there are lot of farmers in Matabeleland region who have received various amounts of loans from micro finance institutions to support their horticultural projects. I am talking of direct lending to smallholder farmers with tremendous success.
My appeal therefore to the fund administrators is that they should carefully look at their product and see if it is properly designed to suit the intended consumers or there are some inherent constraining factors that need to be cleared out. I have seen tenders being advertised for projects in Binga, Tsholotsho and other areas in Matabeleland and guess where tender documents have to be obtained from — Causeway, Harare — and then we stand on roof tops and accuse people in those areas of not applying for projects in their areas!
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