FARMERS NEED SENSITIZATION ON LOAN SCHEMES- NASFA

SMALLHOLDER farmers in Zambia need adequate sensitization on loan schemes because they lack information on how to access the funds to improve their yields, National Association for Smallholder Farmers Association (NASFA) executive director Frank Kayula has said.

Speaking to The Scoop, Dr. Kayula said the smallholder farmers had been facing a number of challenges in accessing the loan schemes due to lack of information.

“We have noted that our smallholder farmers are facing challenges in accessing the loan scheme that was recently introduced by the Government. According to a research that we conducted, we found out that they were slow in taking up the loan scheme therefore making it impossible for the majority of farmers accessing bank loans due to the little knowledge they had on the loan schemes,” he said.

Dr. Kayula said there was need to sensitize the farmers on easy ways to access the loan schemes adding that others feared the bank loans because they had little knowledge on how bank loans were accessed.

“As an association we highly recommended the loan scheme because we saw to it that it will grow the smallholder farmers other than keep them to the provision of food security only but they should now be able to know how best they can access and use the loan.

“Farmers should be aware and ensure that they understand how loan schemes work especially for those that are engaging into loans for the first time. We urge them to manage the loan schemes as a business and invest into the business so that they get their money back, their profit and be able to repay the loan,” Dr. Kayula said.

He stressed the need for farmers to ensure that as they accessed their loan schemes they know the best technologies used to improve and increase their production.

“Farmers should ensure that when they get the loan they should know the technologies to use for them to be able to improve on their harvest. They should plant deep so that their crops may grow with good grains and they should practice the use of basins or rip lines because maize requires water throughout each growth and only requires about 500mm of water.

We urge the farmers to avoid planting very late maturing varieties if they are to have very good harvests that will enable them to benefit well from their loan schemes,” he said.