Africa-Press – Eswatini. Swaziland National Agricultural Union (SNAU) Executive Director Lwazi Mamba says as farmers they are very excited about the launch of the E53 million Agriculture Development Fund (ADF), which will be administered through EswatiniBank.
The fund was launched by the Minister of Agriculture, Jabulani Mabuza, on Friday at Hhukwini Inkhundla. The vision of the ADF is to facilitate strong linkages in the agriculture and food industry ecosystem by spearheading and supporting deployment of both financial and policy instruments, that will encourage national competitiveness in various priority value chains.
Challenges
The minister said in analyzing the developmental challenges, it had been concluded that investing in improving agribusinesses and food industries could address most of the topical challenges of unemployment, poverty, food insecurity and even climate change. “It is in light of these challenges that the Eswatini Agriculture Development Fund has been established,” said Mabuza. In an interview with this publication yesterday, Mamba said they were very much grateful for the government to come up with the fund, which he believed would go a long way in assisting the farmers. He said funding was the main challenge faced by farmers in the country, while agriculture was the backbone of the nation.
Mamba said the launch of the fund was indeed an indication that their engagement with the government did not fall on deaf ears. He said through this fund, farmers would be able to further scale up their production, which would not help them alone but the nation at large. He said the fund came at a right time where farmers were struggling with the expensive farming input hence through this fund they would be able to procure the necessary farming inputs. The director pleaded with the bank which would be administering the fund to develop terms and conditions that would be suitable for all farmers from the smaller ones to the bigger ones as their capabilities were not the same. He said this was not to say the terms and conditions should be made loose as such may compromise the business of the bank but to say they should be made applicable to the farmers at all level.
Mamba pleaded with the farmers to be honest and to be cooperative once they have been granted the funds and do justice by repaying the funds. In his remarks during the launch, Mabuza added that according to the National Development Plan 2023- 2028, one of the key national objectives was the ‘transformation of agriculture into a productive, high value and market-oriented sector, also capable of providing adequate diverse and nutritious food supplies to the nation’.
Attainment
The minister highlighted that the agriculture and food industries had also been identified as the sector to focus on for the country and global community to accelerate actions towards attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. Mabuza stated that the fund would also create an enabling environment for farmers, agribusinesses and other players to thrive.
He highlighted that the fund would have deliberate financing packages for youth start-up in agribusiness. Mabuza said in addition to financial support, the Eswatini Agriculture Development Fund would also prioritise capacity building initiatives. “We recognise the need to equip our farmers with the necessary skills and knowledge to adopt modern and sustainable farming practices,” said Mabuza.
Meanwhile, EswatiniBank Agribusiness Manager Mazibuse Khumalo said as a bank they were ready once the product was complete. Khumalo said as they had branches in all towns around the country and customers in different locations around the country, beneficiaries would get the right level of service. He said they had placed qualified agriculture extension officers in strategic branches to assist the beneficiaries.
Agreement
Khumalo added that as one of the old players in the Agribusiness Financing Industry, they had found it appropriate to partner with the Ministry of Agriculture and craft this agreement for the benefit of all emaSwati. He said beneficiaries under this arrangement were their centre of focus, and without them as farmers, this initiative was non-existence. Khumalo noted that EswatiniBank and the Ministry of Agriculture had officers with agricultural expertise, who would capacitate and mentor existing and new farmers to migrate from subsistence into commercial farming. He said EswatiniBank under this partnership would provide financial services and credit extension to all existing and new farmers who met the credit extension services requirements. Khumalo said pillars for a sustainable farming businesses were; availability of financial instruments, markets, technical guidance, collateral issues, agricultural technology and many others, of which all of them had been covered in the programme they were launching.
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