Under the National Enhanced Agriculture Productivity Scheme
(NEAPS), commonly known as Command Agriculture or Special Agriculture Programme
funding model, Government provides guarantees to banks for the farmers to
secure loans for inputs.
Command Agriculture, which was initiated in 2016, has laid
a solid foundation for ensuring national food security, accelerating import
substitution, increasing employment and improving incomes and livelihoods. The
programme is backed by Government guarantee to banks that raise capital to lend
to farmers to enhance local agricultural production through concessionary
loans.
The scheme has also provided a basis for broadening
agricultural exports. More than 15 000 farmers benefit from the scheme annually
with at least 2,3 million smallholder farmers benefiting from social protection
schemes every year.
In a statement yesterday, Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries,
Water and Rural Resettlement Minster Dr Anxious Masuka said farmers under
Command Agriculture who have fully paid their debts will immediately sign up
for the 202I/22 summer cropping season.
However, those with outstanding debts will not access the
loans. “Farmers with outstanding debts will not be enrolled for the 2021/22
summer cropping season until they have made an immediate payment of at least 50
percent of the 2020/21 season total loan amount by September 31, 2021. They
should also make a repayment of at least 80 percent of the total amount by
November 30, 2021,” said Dr Masuka.
The minister said the defaulters are also supposed to sign
a commitment with an asset pledge to pay the programme in full before the onset
of 2021/22 summer cropping season.
“For the avoidance of doubt, banks that lend to farmers who
have not fulfilled those conditions will be liable for any defaults. Additional
measures will be taken and all national payment platforms will be activated to
ensure repayments by defaulting farmers, including submission of names to the
Financial Clearing Bureau.,” said Dr Masuka.
The Minister said Government reserves the right to revoke
offer letters for farmers who use their offer letters to the detriment of the
programmes it is funding, including an intentional failure to settle loans. Dr
Masuka said contract arrangements for the 2021/22 season are being strengthened
to deter side-marketing, non-performance and under-performance.
“The success of NEAPS is pivotal for sustainable financing
of the agricultural sector. The success of the programme is dependent on
repayment of loans by farmers, avoidance of side-marketing, and restoration of
financial discipline and ethical conduct in the conduct of business by all
stakeholders in the agricultural value chain,” he said.
“We issued several Statutory Instruments (SIs) to protect
contractors, including Government. Farmers have overwhelmingly supported these
instruments by honouring their obligations and we thank these farmers for this
effort.”
Dr Masuka noted that some farmers were ignoring these SIs
through side-marketing their crops, prejudicing contractors and jeopardising
repayments to banks that funded the programme. “The agricultural transformation
we seek should not be jeopardised by these few farmers. Government has assisted
to ensure NEAPS is well funded with the ultimate goal of converting repayments
from recoveries into a revolving fund so that farmers to continue benefiting
from the programme,” he said.
Dr Masuka said Government is wary of some unscrupulous
farmers that are abusing the Command Agriculture scheme by taking inputs and
misusing them. “Other farmers are not repaying their debts, even if they have
capacity to do so,” he said.
Dr Masuka said Government will continue to implement the
two-pronged approach in financing agricultural activities, with the fiscus
focussing on supporting vulnerable households with inputs under the Productive
Social Protection Scheme (Presidential Inputs Scheme), while the private sector
is provided with an appropriate environment to finance commercial activities,
including guarantees, where necessary.
In April, CBZ Agro-Yield managing director, Mr Walter
Chigodora told the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Lands, Agriculture,
Fisheries, Water, and Rural Resettlement that Government extended the repayment
period by an additional three years to farmers who failed to repay their loans
at the end of last season owing to drought and the Covid-19-induced national
lockdown.
This means the debt has been restructured and farmers will
have to repay it in three instalments for the next three seasons. Chronicle
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