The Ministry of Agriculture lends 1.1 billion AFS to more than 14,000 farmers

Jawza 9: May 30.2021
Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock is going to lend 1.1 billion afghani to 14,300 farmers via Agricultural Development Fund (ADF), these loans are given for periods of three to five years.
The loan agreement was signed in presence of Dr. Anwarul Haq Ahady, MAIL minister, between Dr. Emal Arman, the director of (ADF), and officials four local finance companies, First Microfinance Bank, OXUS Afghanistan, FINCA-Afghanistan and Tarh-e-Naw Company, under which, the four loan provider agencies will provide loans to farmers and agricultural activities.
Dr. Anwar al-Haq Ahady, at the signing ceremony of these memorandums, said,” Four specific agricultural sectors will benefit from these loans, he added that we are signing four contracts that will provide 1.1 billion AFN to four different financial institutions, he said from these four institutions two are small lending institutions that provides loan for farmers or institutions linked to agricultural sector. He saying that Five hundred million AFN will be lent to the First Microfinance Bank, three million AFN to OXUS Afghanistan, one hundred million AFN to FINCA-Afghanistan and about two hundred million AFN to Tarh-e-Naw Company, In general, more than 14,000 farmers will benefit from these loans."
Ahady said that these financial institutions, which will be borrowed from Agricultural Development Fund according of this memorandum, each will provide smaller loans to farmers and agricultural activities.
Meanwhile, Dr Emal Arman, technical director for the ministry's Agricultural Development Fund (ADF), was quoted in the statement as saying that "the institution has approved 13.2 billion afghani since its inception. Of that amount, more than 10.4 billion afghani has been lent to 55,066 farmers in 32 provinces of Afghanistan's 34 provinces."
Mr. Arman added that these loans have been distributed in various fields, including agricultural trades, agricultural cooperatives and associations, financial intermediaries, livestock farms, fish farming, poultry, fresh and dried fruit processors and exporters, flour mills, agricultural equipment companies, farms and companies. Importers of chemical fertilizers and other agricultural entrepreneurs.
He stressed that farmers and agricultural operators who have so far benefited from loans from the Agricultural Development Fund, their incomes and production have increased by twenty-one to twenty-five percent.
Meanwhile, Mohammad Shafi Aminzadah, directorof a poultry farm that has benefited from loans from ADF, says that the granting of various loans by MAIL has improved activities in livestock and agricultural sectors. He said many of the struggling agricultural and livestock companies were standing on their own two feet with loans from the Agricultural Development Fund, saying his poultry company in Kabul was able to increase its production after borrowing and is now able to produce up to 50,000 chickens a day.
The Agricultural Development Fund was established as a non-bank entity in 2010 at a cost of 100 million $ in USAID assistance that farmers and companies in agriculture and livestock can access to large and small loans. Providing lending services to farmers, agricultural entrepreneurs through financial intermediation and granting loans directly to applicants in order to grow and improve agriculture is one of the main responsibilities of this fund.