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Harare – Zimbabwe will next month receive the first tranche of $38 million from Brazil under a $98 million loan facility agreed between the two countries last year to fund acquisition of agricultural equipment, Acting President Joice Mujuru said yesterday. Acting President Mujuru, who was addressing delegates at the 2014 national dialogue on agro-business, food and nutrition security, said the loan had been negotiated as part of government initiatives to achieve food security.

The dialogue sought to give a platform to the government, private sector and other stakeholders to address issues of concern facing the agriculture sector with a view to increasing output.

“The loan is in the form of irrigation and mechanisation equipment,” she said.
“A contract between the Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development and suppliers of the first tranche of $38 million has been signed and the first tranche is expected by September 2014 for the summer cropping season.”

While modalities on how farmers will access the facility are yet to be made public, earlier reports have indicated that farmers would apply for the funds at concessionary rates specifically for acquiring agricultural equipment such as tractors as well as rehabilitation of irrigation schemes.

Acting President Mujuru said the funding complemented government strategies to boost irrigation development as part of efforts to guard against the effects of climate change.

“A total of 36 irrigation schemes have been resuscitated to date covering a total of 3,060 hectares,” she said.
She lauded the European Union which has also availed €6 million (about $7.9 million) for rehabilitating irrigation schemes in Manicaland and Matabeleland South provinces.

Acting President Mujuru said food security and nutrition remained the top priority for government, which has committed itself to various international, regional and national programmes aimed at attaining self-sufficiency.

She said access to affordable inputs by farmers was key in boosting productivity, which was the reason the government had continued to support smallholder farmers with agricultural inputs.

In the last summer cropping season, the government availed $160 million worth of inputs to over 1.6 million households, which, coupled with good rains the country received, paid off as the country almost doubled maize output to over 1.45 million tonnes and recorded a surplus of cereals for the first time in years.
Acting President Mujuru said the government was already at advanced stages of preparing for the summer cropping season.

“Government remains committed to the capitalisation of Agribank so that loans can be disbursed to farmers at competitive interest rates,” she said.
“The government is also seized with the idea of supporting farmers to produce for well-planned and sustainable markets.”

Acting Agriculture Minister Dr Olivia Muchena said it was critical that smallholder farmers be supported to enable them boost production. “Smallholder farmers must not remain marginalised in subsistence farming,” she said.

The smallholder sector contributed about 80 percent of the estimated 1.45 million tonnes in the previous summer cropping season.
Meanwhile, various presenters at the dialogue called on the government to create an environment that allows the private sector to play a key role in boosting agriculture production. — New Ziana.