Farmers advised to form groups to access funds

The New Vision

Publish Date: Sep 15, 2015

The head of agri-business at DFCU Bank Arnod Tijdens (left) and Charity Busingye of FINCA addressing participants. PHOTO: Francis Emorut

By Francis Emorut

Farmers have been advised to form groups, be skilled and become professional if they are to access agribusiness financing.

The advice was given by the head of agribusiness at DFCU Bank, Arnold Tijdens.

"You need to become professional and skilled in order to access agribusiness loans," Tijdens told farmers.

He also emphasized the need of having strong productivity mechanisms.

Tijdens made remarks during the 6th agricultural market information symposium 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 improved decision making in the agribusiness value chain and to answer a fundamental question of where and how to source market information.

The DFCU agribusiness boss informed the audience that market information is used to assess the repayment capacity of the client operating in a changing environment.

He pointed out that the type of information on agriculture will depend on the price data, sector data, specific client data and the client.

He explained that on asset financing, the asset for example truck, machinery or storage facility must generate a cash flow to repay the loan and the loan maturity must be aligned with economic life of the asset.