Stop exploiting farmers, agro-dealers told
Friday, 16 December 2011 00:00
Herald Reporter
Agro-dealers have been called upon to flush out middlemen who exploit farmers, thereby derailing the agricultural industry.
Mr Steven Ngwalla of Kenya made the call recently in Harare while addressing a five-day training workshop for agro-dealers from the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa region.
He highlighted the challenges faced by the Comesa region in the agricultural sector that have been caused by climate change.
"There is need for agro-dealers' training and accreditation because they deal directly with farmers and can play a part in the green revolution.
"Agro-dealers must emphasise to farmers that they must realise benefits from their trade and that it's no longer a hobby," said Mr Ngwalla.
He said some of the challenges faced by agro-dealers included lack of business management with a few being technically qualified, financial management and lack of record keeping.
Mr Ngwalla emphasised the need for agro-dealers to grow through financial discipline.
"Many agro-dealers are failing in business because of random lending to friends and family members, with debt management being poor.
"Another detrimental problem has been diversification by dealers into unrelated businesses that have eroded their financial base," said Mr Ngwalla.
He appealed to agro-dealers to spearhead the creation of a "green revolution" in Africa following successive years of drought on the continent.
The five-day workshop was organised by the Alliance for Commodity Trade in Eastern and Southern Africa and the Comesa Regional Agro-Inputs Programme.
Emphasis was put on the importance of agro-dealers in the quest for food security and poverty alleviation for smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa.
Participants were expected to come up with action plans for their respective countries.
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