Posted on November, 14, 2018 at 09:45 am
THE Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT), the Tanzania Agricultural Development Bank (TADB), peasants and other agri-business stakeholders had this week sorted out financing challenges and problems experienced in Iringa, Njombe,Mbeya and Songwe regions in a special workshops Representatives of Sagcot and TADB, the two public bodies serving farmers, assured peasants and agri-business stakeholders that eligibles takeholders will get money and implements from the TADB without hindrance but emphasised that such empowerment will only go to eligible applicants.
The seminar was jointly organised by Sagcot, TADB and PASS and brought together growers of various crops, dairy farmers and other agri-businesses in SAGCOT’s two operational Ihemi and Mbarali clusters.
The two clusters serve small and middle group farmers in Iringa, Njombe, Mbeya and Songwe regions and help them increase agricultural productivity.
SAGCOT’s coordinator of partners, Adam Ndaturu said the joint workshop was a pertinent forum for farming stakeholders in the four regions to discuss face to face with workshop organisers agricultural financing challenges and problems the stakeholders were facing and get solutions.
“Education is part of empowerment in this transformation process. Now stakeholders in these two clusters are aware of the existence of TADB and how to get loans and implements from this bank. Our efforts have been to make participants appreciate that a farmer can be creditworthy and how to become one,” he said.
TADB business manager, Dickson Pangamawe, praised SAGCOT for organizing farmers in viable group in the two clusters, explaining that the work done by SAGCOT makes it easy for other institutions to launch their interventions that aim to modernise farming and bolster farmers’ livelihoods.
Pangamawe assured participants that TADB and SAGCOT will work together to empower farmers and other stakeholders in the two clusters. “We shall work jointly with SAGCOT to educate rural farmers on how our bank operates and procedures for getting loans from us,” he said.
SAGCOT has been instrumental in connecting farmers with potential partners and collaborate on investment ideas and project design. It also helps partners contribute to advocacy on project specific bottlenecks and more general policy issues.
On behalf of workshop participants, a representative of Lisitu Agri-business Group, Benno Mgaya, thanked the workshop organisers, saying the meeting had helped participants’ to acquire ways of accessing financing from the TADB and how to solve project bottlenecks.
Source: IPP Media