By Nelson Gonjani:
National Economic Empowerment Fund (Neef) has said it plans to start providing loans to those engaged in irrigation activities.
“We will actually start disbursing farm input loans to farmers across the country between April and June this year.
Introduction of the loan facility is our priority because we want to help promote the government’s food security goals,” said Neef Chief Executive Officer Humphreys Mdyetseni when he inspected farms that belong to Kasungu District beneficiaries on Saturday.
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“We want to help farmers implement government’s plan of ensuring that Malawians are harvesting three times a year,” Mdyetseni added.
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The Neef chief said the 2023-24 farm input loans programme is worth K17 billion and targets about 10,000 farmers throughout the country.
Out of the amount, K5 billion has already been disbursed to farmers in Kasungu District.
Agriculture Minister Sam Kawale, who was one of the officials that accompanied Neef officials on the tour, hailed the fund for the initiative.
“This is a move in the right direction, in terms of promoting food security in the country.
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“Our ministry believes that hunger, poverty and financial challenges can become history if our farmers are encouraged to take agriculture as a business,” Kawale said.
Member of Parliament for the area, who is also Finance Minister, Simplex Chithyola Banda hailed the Ministry of Agriculture for promoting animal husbandry and crop cultivation at community level.
Chithyola Banda said community members are key to the attainment of the government’s development goals.
