The Delivery Unit under the Office of the Prime Minister of Guinea is launching an initiative to help farmer cooperatives in Maférénya and Kindia regions increase their farm yield, productivity, area of arable land and time saved from manual farm chores
The initiative aims to accelerate the implementation of government flagship initiatives through the development and incubation of effective, sustainable and results-oriented implementation and governance approaches. Pilot projects are focused on agriculture, mining and leadership development.
The Delivery Unit has launched a study to set up an affordable Equipment Financing Scheme for pineapple producers to procure irrigation kits, working in partnership with financial institutions and equipment vendors. Current financial products are not aligned with farmers’ cash flow and income streams, making most equipment financing mechanisms unfit for agriculture lending. To increase access to irrigation equipment, farmers require financial products with flexible repayment terms that match their income.
Through this pilot initiative, the Delivery Unit will target several farmer cooperatives in Maférénya and Kindia regions, with the goal to increase their farm yield from 30 to +50 tons per hectare, farm level productivity and area of arable land per farmer. Also, availability of water on a regular basis due to the irrigation kits contribute to raising the quality of pineapple to international standards, thus creating new and additional market opportunities for farmers.
In the agriculture sector, the Delivery Unit, working with the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Industry, will focus on developing the pineapple value chain by focusing on three priority interventions:
Land preparation: support land extension, preparation and irrigation in order to double land dedicated to pineapple production by 2020, from 400 to 800 hectares.
Access to fertilisers: improve access and use of fertilizers to increase productivity by 70 per cent by 2020, from 30 tonnes/ha to 50tonnes/ha.
Marketing: increase international exports to reach 2,500 tons/year by 2020.
“This financing mechanism for irrigation equipment is a tangible initiative towards economic development, enabling farmers to be empowered,” said a senior representative from a local commercial bank.
