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| National |
| Tama ditches farmers |
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by
Joseph Langa, 05 September 2003
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08:19:43
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The Tobacco Association of Malawi (Tama), which was acting as guarantor for 50,000 tobacco farmers on a special programme to enable them to access farm input loans, has withdrawn the service.
Tama spokesperson George Mituka said yesterday, the association is currently repaying close to K400 million which it guaranteed to over 50,000 farmers to get input loans from various institutions such as Admarc, Norsk Hydro and Farmers World who dragged it to court after the farmers failed to repay.
He said the association also guaranteed a loan of tractors to several farmers with a total value of $2m (about K218 million), which the farmers also defaulted.
Mituka said the association is attempting to recover some of the money through deduction from sales at the auction floors but said some of the farmers cannot be traced.
In a statement, Tama president Albert Kamulaga has told the farmers to forget about getting agro-input loans through the association this year because of the huge sums of money that the farmers defaulted to suppliers.
“Lack of credit discipline among farmers has killed several credit schemes in the country. As we are talking now, tobacco growers owe a lot of money to input suppliers guaranteed by Tama. Forget about any agro-input scheme this year,” says Kamulaga.
He advised the farmers to start growing tobacco with a business culture by injecting their own capital in the business and not depending on loans.
Mituka said Tama’s major area of focus is to provide extension services to farmers, acting as mediators for farmers and providing civic education on current developments in the tobacco industry.
“We noted that they had problems in accessing farm inputs and ferrying their produce especially tobacco. But they have abused the scheme and we have no choice but to abandon the scheme although it will have an impact on the farmers,” said Mituka.
A smallholder farmer in Lilongwe Jonas Chigwenembe said the development is likely to reduce the level of production of the crop in the country.
Secretary for Agriculture Charles Matabwa could not be reached for comment on Thursday on the impact that the development will have on tobacco farming. He was reported to be in a meeting. |
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