Wheat farmers want bank loans processed early

Wheat planting has started slowly, with farmers wanting banks to speed up their loan processing so they can fund their activities.

Zimbabwe Farmers Union (ZFU) president Mr Paul Zachariya confirmed that little activity was taking place on the farms so far, insisting this was exacerbated by banks delaying loans to enable farmers to plant the crop timeously.

He said the late response by banks in processing of loans would jeopardise the targeted yields, adding the production would boom if the bankrolling was done on time.

The wheat planting window is short and further delays would reduce production, said Mr Zachariya, thereby inhibiting Zimbabwe from achieving self-sufficiency.

“It is taking very long for banks to release loans to farmers for them to kick start farming,” he said.

“Some farmers who applied in February are yet to get the funds and some banks haven’t even conducted farm visits.

“We are worried because the planting window for wheat is very short, which means if a farmer missed the planting period by a week it means you are losing the yield.”

Mr Zachariya said delays by banks would lead to the farmers defaulting repayment of loans after they fail to get the expected yield.

Planting wheat after May would not give the crops enough time to be ready for harvesting before the summer rains started falling and spoiling the grain.

“The planting season starts April to the mid-month of May, any planting beyond this period will automatically reduce the targeted yields,” he said.

“This means crops that will encroach into the rainy season will not make it.”

Mr Zachariya said there were some isolated activities around the country on winter wheat planting owing to delay in harvesting of summer crops.

He said they had no statistics of the planted hectarage as of now.-The Herald