The Sunday News
Sunday News Reporter
The AFC Land Bank is geared to support the 2023 winter wheat crop with an aggressive target to surpass its 2022 contribution of over 48 000 metric tonnes (MT).
The AFC Land Bank, a subsidiary of Agricultural Finance Corporation Holdings is a Development Finance Institution (DFI) and focuses on supporting all farmer categories that include communal farmers, A1 and A2 resettled farmers, irrigation schemes and farmer groups, commercial entities in farming and contracting companies.
Winter wheat crop
“The Bank’s mandate is to transform agriculture and the journey so far has been characterised by a lot of positive milestones,” said managing director Mrs Priscilla Munyeza.
In 2022, the bank funded winter wheat on 10 500 hectares (ha) and surpassed the set target of 10 000ha. This contributed at least 48 771MT of wheat representing about 14 percent of national wheat production. Of this about 30 300MT were delivered to Grain Marketing Board (GMB) to drive food security in line with government expectations and move the country towards self-sufficiency while the remainder was delivered to private players.
“We are now ready for the 2023 wheat season and are now calling on farmers to come through with their financing applications,” Mrs Munyeza said.
Having surpassed the 10 000ha for the previous season the AFC Land Bank is working with a wheat production target of 15 000ha for the 2023 season. Farmers will be assisted with inputs, working capital support and advisory services to see them through the season. The inputs package comprises mainly of seed, chemicals, fertilisers and fuel. Mrs Munyeza added that wheat farmers could also access farm mechanisation services through the AFC Leasing Company or through the Belarus Mechanization Facility which was launched by President Mnangagwa.
“The Bank is actively participating on this facility which has been well received by farmers and is targeting to distribute over 180 tractors to the farming community. We have also strategically placed our Land Bank offices in all the 10 provinces in the country for the convenience of our farmers who would like to access finance, hire farming equipment or participate on the Belarus Mechanisation Facility. We are encouraging youth and female farmers to come through to our offices and enquire on our facilities as we strive to ensure that we leave no one behind in the agricultural transformation agenda.”
