Farmers to Benefit from a $5m capital loan

BY SAMUEL NABWIISO

EAC small scale farmers to Benefit from a $5m capital loan: Small scale farmers from the East African Community will have reason to smile after Calvert Impact Capital announced plan to extend  a loan amounting to $5m to support small holder farmers in the six East African States.

The loan will be channeled through One Acre Fund, a non-profit social enterprise that supplies financing and training to support smallholders in East Africa.

Under the arrangement, Calvert Impact Capital will be lending to One Acre Fund to purchase agricultural and clean energy products, which will be provided to farmers on credit. Over the next three years.

The Agriculture sector in the East African region faces many challenges and of the most one being inadequate access to quality cheap loans from financial institution  this has affected the sector because it keep farmers  not to adopt a modern way of production.

“Once farmers have access to cheap loans they can apply new technologies in the production process which can enhance production at farm level” said Jenya Shandina, Senior Manager at One Acre Fund.

Apart from access to technology, farmers are also not accessing to high-quality seed and fertilizer, agricultural training, and fair market prices. One Acre Fund’s unique services were developed by working directly with farmers in the communities in which they operate.

“Smallholder farmers need improved access to high-quality inputs, financing, and agricultural training to achieve food security and prosperity in their homes. Our partnership with Calvert Impact Capital will enable us to deliver services to more farmers, helping create futures of big harvests, healthy families,” he added.

Commenting on the partnership, Songbae Lee, Director of Investments at Calvert Impact Capital said the partnership will provide a great opportunity to increase their exposure to the sustainable agriculture sector and strengthen their relationship with One Acre Fund, an organization with a deep regional expertise.

“We are excited to provide capital to enable them to expand the products they can offer to communities and increase their impact on the ground.” He said.

Source: East Africa Business Week (EABW)