Farmers demand easy access to finance

FARMERS have appealed to government to come up with more mechanisms aimed at easing access to loans from financial institutions to facilitate large scale farming.The farmers made their demands known at the launch of a six-day agriculture expo which began yesterday at Mulindi Agricultural Show Grounds in Gasabo District.This year’s expo is being held under the theme, “accelerating agriculture transformation by promoting agro-processing.”In an interview with The New Times, Evariste Mutibagirana, one of the exemplary farmers from Rwamagana District said lack of financial accessibility remains a major stumbling block to large scale farming.“We cannot transform agriculture with insufficient funding, we need, for example, to be facilitated to get loans at lower interest rates and I believe that such incentives will enable our nation to achieve sustainable development,” Mutibagirana said.Jacqueline Mutesi, an exhibitor with Kageyo Farmers’ Cooperative in Gatsibo District, said most farmers still use rudimental methods of farming.She said that in order to increase agriculture production, there is a need for the Ministry of Agriculture and its partners to intensify capacity building for farmers on how to use modern techniques.The farmers said the expo acts a platform connecting both the sellers and buyers and sharing information and experience regarding the promotion of their trade.The expo attracted over 140 exhibitors.Addressing the exhibitors, the Prime Minister, Dr Pierre Damien Habumuremyi, called for the transformation of agriculture which he said would help to reduce poverty levels and facilitate the achievement of vision 2020.“Our country has reached a very good level in terms of increasing production and what remains is promotion of value addition in agricultural products so that they compete favourably on the regional and international markets,” Habumuremyi said.The Premier also asked the ministries of commerce and agriculture to put in place strategies aimed at promoting strong linkages between investors and farmers.

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Farmers demand easy access to finance