by Grace Chekai

Government has received a total of 20 tractors from both the Belarus and the John Deere facilities, a move that will make farming easier, thereby resulting in better yields, Harare Post has learnt.

According to a contact, the tractors were received on behalf of the Government by the Agricultural Bank of Zimbabwe (Agribank) which will then facilitate the distribution of the farming equipment to the farmers.

She said that this scheme falls under a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) arrangement.

"The SPV scheme will enable farmers to hire farm equipment from Agribank, and has already managed to assist in the harvesting of wheat across all provinces this year, of which 15 percent of the total planted area (44 466Ha) has been harvested so far," she said.

The contact revealed that the SPV scheme will go a long way in assisting the farmers to cultivate their land, adding that the CBZ is not going to provide tillage services this season because all the services it used to provide are now in the hands of Agribank.

She said this arrangement was according to the term sheet signed by Treasury and CBZ Bank.

She further said that CBZ had managed to recover 26.29 percent from the farmers as loan recovery as at 14 October 2020.

Contact added that the level of accountability of loan repayments was expected to increase because a monitoring and evaluation team from the Command Centre has been sent to visit farmers who are yet to service their loans.

The contact revealed that CBZ has bought a total of 2 000 440 liters of fuel, of which 1 229 590 liters will be used for land preparation, while the balance will be used for wheat harvesting.

Economic analysts have commended this arrangement by the Government saying that farmers will be able to produce more harvests in the country and will enable Zimbabwe to retain its bread basket status in Africa.