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"content": "Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, this Motion touches on an important issue on national development, especially on the question of strengthening our agricultural sector. I have been on record before, on this Floor, saying that it does not matter how good our airports, roads and railways are, if we do not have sufficient food in this country. There is no country in the world which can claim or aspire to be stable and prosperous, unless it is self-sufficient in matters of food production and security. This is because agriculture is one of the things that help us resolve the very vexing issue of food security. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I want to support the position taken by some of the previous speakers, namely, that it does not make sense that in other areas of production, we are able to entertain low interest rates, in terms of loans, but when it comes to a critical issue like agriculture, one would expect actually no interest or, at least, very low interest, so that we can spur food production and make sure that we resolve and sort out the agricultural sector. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, sometimes some of the measures that are needed to provide incentives to the agricultural sector are not as complicated as we think. So, the issue of interest can go a long way in helping our farmers to increase food production, both in terms of food crops and also cash crops. The only challenge is that for a long time the AFC has been concentrating on giving support to large-scale farmers. I think that time has come for the AFC to concentrate on the rural small-scale farmers a little more and, perhaps, review their way of securitizing loans. I am one of the people who believe that actually we should transform the AFC into a farmers’ bank, which is able to fund agriculture, especially subsistence agriculture. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, an example in point of how subsidization of small-scale agriculture can turn around the country’s fortunes is what happened in Malawi during the time of the late President Bingu Wa Mutharika between 2005 and 2006. During this time, through incentives by way of subsidizing fertilizers, seeds and inputs to rural farmers and a bit of irrigation, he was able to make Malawi actually export maize for three or four successive years. For many decades before that, Malawi was a net importer of maize. There was a lot of famine and hunger all the time. So, it is possible to achieve this with the issue of interest, because interest is one way of subsidies. There is no country in the world that does not subsidize its agricultural sector, including the rich nations. That is why, for example, the issue of subsidies in the World Trade Organization (WTO) and other multilateral trade discussions has featured prominently. So, I am a full supporter, not only of the waiver of high interest on farmers and farmers’ loans, but I am also a strong supporter of greater funding for the AFC and, perhaps, the turning of AFC into a farmer’s bank. Because right now, the majority of our population are small scale farmers out there; they have no support system and a bit of the private sector has come in, in the form of some of the banks like Equity and others, which are trying to help the farmers. These banks are actually reaping a lot of profits from our farmers. Some of our farmers are not even able to meet the requirements of loan repayments and they have ended up even losing their investments as a result of defaulting on loans which are advanced by the private sector. The equivalent of what I have in mind is the Farmers Bank of Zimbabwe, the Farmers Bank of India and the Farmers Bank of Philippines, among others. These are examples of how, using agricultural subsidies and financing, we can strengthen the agricultural sector and become food sufficient. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate"
}