Speed up farmers' bank launch - call

The government has been urged to speed up establishment of the long awaited agricultural bank to help farmers’ access to loans for buying inputs to boost production.

The call was made here on Wednesday by the former Rukwa Regional Commissioner Daniel Ole Njoolay, during the workshop organised by a Network of Farmers’ Groups in Tanzania (MVIWATA).

He said once established, the bank would improve the livelihood of many farmers who have been denied access to loans for a long time.

“I urge the government to speed up establishment of the bank, which in my view would help farmers fight abject poverty,“ he said.

In order to improve performance of agriculture in Tanzania, the former regional commissioner who is also a farmer asked the government to draw implementable policies.

He said the agricultural sector is facing more challenges including theft committed by unscrupulous people under the current input voucher payment system.

“The government should ban the system, through which some officials have been collaborating with farming inputs agents to steal the vouchers,” he said.

He said there were forty pending cases related to voucher thefts before he retired as regional commissioner in Rukwa regional few years ago.

Instead, he proposed the voucher payment system be handled by the Tanzania Fertiliser Company (TFC) and Agricultural Seed Agency (ASA) in collaboration with district councils.

Njolay also urged farmers to create habit of consulting extension officers in order to improve the agricultural output.

“Extension officers play a crucial role in agricultural services. Please seek their assistance in order to improve your livelihood,” he said.

Isihaka Nkya who is a farmer from Arusha said that the government was taking too long to set up the bank.

“We small farmers will continue to face difficulties when accessing loans from commercial banks, which tend to complicate procedures before they issue the loans,” he said.

He said as farmers they still need to be convinced that commercial banks can offer solutions to agricultural problems.
“We really need banks that will offer us long-term loans to procure modern farming equipment,” he said.

Maria Lugoya from Mufindi District in Iringa Region, urged the government to allow Mviwata become agents in distributing fertilisers to farmers.
“This is a very big organization. I urge the government to authorise MVIWATA to distribute farming inputs to farmers countrywide,” she said.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives, preparation for the establishment of the bank reached at an advanced stage.
The bank was scheduled to start operations this year, but it was not immediately known what was holding back the efforts.

The two-day workshop which attracted over 1500 farmers countrywide, representatives of government officials and donors ends today. 

SOURCE: IPPMEDIA

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