Finance is crucial for agriculture – for inputs, for labour, for capital investments and for dealing with emergencies – yet in Zimbabwe agricultural financing is tough. In part this is because of the state of the economy as farmers have to deal with parallel exchange rates, high inflation and, overall, a lack of cash in the system, or at least in those parts of the system that most people can access. But it’s also to do with a lack of appropriate financial instruments suited to the growth of small and medium scale farming following land reform.
At the end of last year, we investigated the challenges of agricultural financing and some of the solutions that are evolving in Chikombedzi, Mvurwi, Matobo, Masvingo and Gutu. Some of the results are presented in the following blogs. This one starts with a discussion of loans and credit. It will be followed by two blogs on remittances and savings, with the series ending on a summary of the findings and some indications for ways forward. These were rapid investigations and explorations of case studies through many interviews across our sites; a more in-depth examination must wait, but on each theme some important conclusions emerge.
This article is from Zimbabweland, a blog written by IDS Research Fellow Ian Scoones. Zimbabweland focuses on issues related to rural livelihoods and land reform in Zimbabwe.