Farmers tipped on loans

By Francis Emorut                                                                            

Farmers have been advised to form groups to enable them access agribusiness financing. The advice was given by the head of agribusiness at DFCU Bank Arnold Tijdens.

"You need to become more professional, more skilled and have joint efforts in order to access agribusiness loan," Tijdens told farmers.

He also emphasized the need of having strong productivity mechanism.

Tijdens made remarks during the 6th agricultural market information symposium held in Kampala.

The symposium held under the theme: "Building Bridges with Agribusiness Data: The Power of Market Information in the 21st Century," was organized by Agri Pro Focus.

It attracted small holder farmers, market information and agriculture advisors among others.

The symposium was meant to create partnerships and promoting the use of Information Communication Technology (ICT) tools in the sourcing of market information for the improved decision making in the agribusiness value chain and to answer a fundamental question of where and how to source market information.
Charity Busingye an official from FINCA informed participants that the bank offers agricultural loans to finance activities in the agricultural production such as processing and market value chain, animal production, piggery, poultry, fish farming, bee keeping, food processing, and hullers.

Lucy Asiimwe the country coordinator of Agri Pro Focus underscored the need for farmers to form groups to boost their potential in information and market access as well as accessing financing for agribusiness.