Africa-Press – Eswatini. The Industrial Development Company of Eswatini (IDCE) has streamlined the process of funding grain farmers in a bid to ensure that failure of farming projects is reduced significantly.
This is a result of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between IDCE and National Maize Corporation at NMC offices in Matsapha yesterday.
IDCE CEO Fairlie Mabuza said the memorandum would open doors for IDCE as a financer to participate effectively in the grain farming business. He said it would enable them to streamline the process of funding grain farmers with the assurance that IDCE would be able to receive payment whilst the farmer also benefitted.
“The IDCE will be more comfortable to work with grain farmers as this MoU guarantees technical and financial support to the farmer, meaning chances of project failure have been greatly reduced,” he said.
Mabuza explained that the MoU would add value to the grain production and processing industry, as it brought opportunities to install irrigation systems and enable the farmer to procure herbicides, pesticides, fertilizers and quality seeds through IDCE funding.
“Farmers will be able to reduce their risk profile as they migrate from 100 per cent rain-fed to partial or totally irrigated farms,” Mabuza said.
Improve
He went on to express that farmers with low yields now stood a chance to improve their yields and profitability.
“IDCE has a keen interest in funding value chain integration projects from the farmer to the agro processor, packager and retailer,” said Mabuza.
He added that it would close any funding gaps that may have existed in the market and hinder the efficient operation and growth of industries in the country.
Utilize
“To fully utilise the benefits emanating from this MoU, we encourage farmers to form production clusters so that they can share beneficial farming, operational and financial information among themselves,” he said.
Mabuza highlighted that working in silos and individual farmers slowed down the learning process from the practical experience, sourcing of information and also block the farmer from sourcing solutions available close by.
“Additionally, from these production groups the farmers can also make bulk purchases together hence lowering their transactional and operational costs.” he added. He applauded NMC for the four successive years participating in the Government Subsidy Scheme by funding agro dealers in the subsidy value chain.
“This project has been successful and yielded the desired results,” he said.
Meanwhile, NMC CEO Mavela Vilane said the corporation would disseminate farmer development officers to ensure that yields from the beneficiaries of this partnership ended up at NMC
“This will allow us to hold on to IDCE’s payment and the farmers will get their profit from the yield,” said Vilane.
He added that in so doing, it would support the country in the production of staple grains and further ensure food security.
“As NMC, a sovereign for the country, we want to see the country being able to sustain itself in the event that we are suffocated from any angle,” said Vilane
He said, in the event the country had enough food produced locally, they would be allowed to export the extra produce.
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