A roundtable meeting was organised on April 9 with financial Institutions to discuss strategies to increase access to finance to small and medium scale Horticulture actors.

The meeting among others focused on issues of collateral, sustainable business oriented farming, bank farmer relationship, book keeping, operating an active bank account among others which poses as challenges for assessing loans to boost the businesses in the Agriculture sector.

One important disclosure during the meeting is the willingness of financial institutions to support smallholder farmers once they are capable of complying with the demands of commercial financing.  In the discussion, most financial institutions asserted that a careful evaluation of most Agriculture operations do not appear bankable after due diligence hence inability to support most of the time.

In addition, the challenge of tracking activities of farmers to know what their cash flow has been over the years is pertinent.

HortiFresh used the platform to elaborate on the stages of cultivation of fruits and vegetables and advised that, it was important for these financial institutions to explore the immense opportunities that exist in the sector.