Zim farmers to receive $109m donor funding

Zim farmers to receive $109m donor funding
Written by Kingsley Kaswende in Harare, Zimbabwe
Saturday, October 03, 2009 5:38:23 PM

ZIMBABWEAN farmers have won a collective US$109 million from donors in efforts aimed at helping the country reap over two million metric tonnes of cereal during the 2009/10 season.

The funding comprises US $74 million announced by the World Bank, US $20 million by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the US $15 million extended by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) last week.

USAID and Standard Chartered Bank of Zimbabwe on Wednesday signed an agreement that would enable the bank to expand its lending by US $20 million over five years.

The programme, made possible under USAID’s Development Credit Authority, is targeted at the agricultural sector and will allow the bank to increase the number of loans directly to farmers and enterprises that can provide inputs and technical assistance to small holder farmers with the ultimate objective of increasing productivity and production.

“The credit authority is being established as one of several assistance programmes, above and beyond US humanitarian aid to Zimbabwe, which have come about because of President Obama’s commitment to provide agricultural and other assistance to the people of Zimbabwe. President Obama made this commitment to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai during the prime minister’s June 2009 visit to Washington DC. The assistance demonstrates the will of the American people to assist Zimbabwe to restore its once vibrant agricultural sector,” said US Embassy chargé d’affaires Donald Petterson at the signing ceremony.

USAID director Karen Freeman also announced that her organization, through the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, would provide approximately 13,000 vulnerable households with seeds and fertiliser for the coming agricultural season through US $1.7 million in funding to FAO and NGOs.

The World Bank on Wednesday also announced a donation of US $74 million to help poor farmers in Zimbabwe.

World Bank senior agricultural economist David Rohrbach said the money would benefit 700,000 families, helping to buy seeds, fertilisers and other agricultural equipment for the coming harvest.

The money will be channelled through non-governmental organisations involved in the agricultural and humanitarian sectors.

Last week, FAO said it would give about 176,000 vulnerable Zimbabwean farmers seeds and fertilisers for the coming farming season.

FAO's Emergency Coordinator in Zimbabwe Jean-Claude Urvoy said the US $15 million scheme, which is being done in conjunction with the European Union, could possibly double food production this season compared to the previous season when the country reaped 1.2 million metric tonnes.

A decade of economic crisis coupled with intermittent droughts, lack of fuel, tools, seeds and fertilizers has over the years diminished agricultural production.

Others however, blame poor production on seizure of farms from commercial white farmers for distribution to inexperienced indigenous farmers who neither have interest nor agricultural knowhow.

The country, once the breadbasket of the region, has been struggling to feed itself over the years.

The announcements for funding come at a time when the inclusive government was holding a stakeholders agricultural conference that was aimed at finding ways of reviving the shattered agricultural sector in Zimbabwe.

Agriculture minister Joseph Made, senior government officials, bankers, and farming groups were among the participants at the conference, funded by a multi-donor trust fund.

At the conference on Wednesday, stakeholders said a return of the rule of law and respect for property rights were essential to bring back investor confidence and for the restoration of agriculture.

They were referring to the land reform programme in which over 4,000 white farmers have so far had their farms redistributed, mostly without compensation.

A recent report by government stated that since the so-called land reform programme started in 2000, 203 farms out of the gazetted 6,571 farms have been compensated.

The government argues that the rest of the compensation is expected to come from the British government as agreed at the Lancaster discussions.