Local financial institutions and insurance firms are facing intense pressure to abandon legacy credit assessment models and roll out flexible risk-mitigation frameworks to integrate female smallholder farmers directly into mainstream national value chains. The call took centre stage at the Women in Agriculture of Zimbabwe (WIAZ) annual conference held in Harare last week.
Women in Agriculture Zimbabwe (WIAZ) is an advocacy and networking organisation dedicated to economically empowering female farmers.
With more than 14 000 members, WIAZ focuses on building capacity, promoting climate-smart agriculture, connecting women to markets, and advocating for equitable land rights and financial inclusion in Zimbabwe’s agricultural sector.
Mr Simba Guzha, regional project manager for Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) in Zimbabwe, criticised traditional commercial banking frameworks for systematically excluding the country’s primary food producers.
According to Mr Guzha, smallholder farmers drive the bulk of national production and 70 percent of these rural farmers are women.
“What we are seeing on the ground is that banks still rely on a legacy “heritage approach” that demands static physical collateral, such as urban title deeds,” Mr Guzha said.
“Yet, smallholder farmers – 70 percent of whom are women in rural communities – do not have access to title deeds. If banks only look at these traditional assets, they miss the biggest demographic driving production.”
As a corrective policy shift, Mr Guzha urged financial institutions to adopt modern, decentralised credit models. These include group lending structures utilising social collateral, digital transaction history tracking via mobile money platforms like EcoCash and Warehouse Receipt Financing.
Under a warehouse receipt system, smallholders can secure commercial bank loans backed simply by the verified volume and value of commodity yields stored in certified depositories.
Responding to calls for specialised financial products, People’s Own Savings Bank (POSB) agri-business analyst Ms Tamari Mhlanga said the institution was diversifying its portfolio to better accommodate seasonal smallholders.
She said POSB had deployed a low-cost farmers’ account engineered to halt maintenance fees outside active farming seasons, a strategy designed to cushion growers against dry, post-harvest cash-flow periods.
The bank is also participating in the Government-backed Belarus Tractor Scheme to fund capital assets for women, though she noted that uptake remains low due to a lack of awareness.
“Through platforms like this, we need to demystify the criteria (of obtaining loans) and explain exactly how farmers can structure and present their projects to become bankable,” Ms Mhlanga said.
The conversation shifted to climate-induced supply chain disruptions, with producers expressing anxiety over extreme weather shifts, such as intense, non-stop mid-summer downpours that destroy mature open-field crops.
Mr Sydney Mbava, risk analyst and insurance underwriter at Wonayi Insurance noted that cultural aversion to coverage often leaves women highly vulnerable to total capital erasure when climate disasters strike.
He said while farmers invest heavily in their crops and assets, climate-induced disasters like drought, flooding and diseases threaten to wipe out these investments.
To mitigate these risks, Mr Mbava said his company provides flexible insurance coverage.
This safeguards their financial future, protects their families, preserves their community standing, and ensures that a single bad season does not result in total financial ruin.
Delegates also raised concerns over a severe grassroots communication gap, noting that 70 percent of rural smallholders lack internet access and completely miss out on critical Government initiatives, including major tractor distribution schemes. The deficit extends beyond digital connectivity to a severe language barrier in technical training.
The annual conference drew delegates from across the country and ran concurrently with an exhibition where major companies, including ZESA Holdings, Old Mutual, Valley Seeds, and Seed Co, showcased their products and services.
Speaking on the sidelines of the conference, WIAZ communications director, Mr Fullard Gwasira, said the organisation was established to complement Government-led initiatives aimed at empowering women.
“We are on the ground and in sync with the government’s empowerment policy,” said Mr Gwasira. We are particularly focusing on women who want to approach agriculture as a viable business.”
He added that WIAZ provides comprehensive support to help young women succeed in the sector over the long term.
“In this process, we undertake training, mentorship, and technical training in specialized agricultural production. We then facilitate their progress to ensure they can sustain their operations far into the future,” he said.
This year, the organisation is shifting its focus toward integrating women more deeply into broader economic structures.
“We are particularly excited that we want to integrate women into the national production value chain,” said Mr Gwasira.-herald
