- Title
- Urban agriculture and access to microfinance in Snake Park, Zimbabwe
- Creator
- Makoni, Charmaine Tafadzwa
- Subject
- Urban agriculture -- Zimbabwe
- Subject
- Economic development -- Zimbabwe -- Finance
- Subject
- Economic development projects -- Zimbabwe -- Finance
- Date Issued
- 2016
- Date
- 2016
- Type
- Thesis
- Type
- Masters
- Type
- MTech
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10948/8099
- Identifier
- vital:24993
- Description
- The role that urban farming plays in the food supply of cities and towns to compliment rural agriculture is increasingly gaining traction. In Zimbabwe, urban agriculture has equally become an important contributor of urban food, particularly for low income households. Urban agriculture is increasingly being viewed as a viable measure to ameliorate urban food insecurity. In spite of the important role it serves in the urban landscape, it is yet to attain political legitimacy and more importantly to gain recognition from the formal financial economy. This in turn has limited the contribution that the urban agriculture can make towards poverty alleviation and inequality for the urban poor. Access to finance and lines of credit for the urban poor can have a significant impact towards not only their agricultural productivity but also their ability to weather economic shocks. This study therefore sought to investigate factors that limit access of small scale urban farmers to agricultural microcredit. The findings of this study are derived from qualitative and quantitative data collected from small scale urban farmers in Snake Park and key informant interviews conducted in Harare, Zimbabwe. The study establishes that the lack of information on credit opportunities, loan apathy and too high interest rates were some of the reasons divulged by farmers in not seeking credit from financial institutions. The results reveal that married women have an added constraint to accessing finance by virtue of husband being head of the house, mean that they hold power to cede assets as collateral. The findings from the financial institution indicated that though the majority of firms focused on large scale commercial farming ventures, some did offer microcredit for small scale urban farmers. The results also showed that though collateral facilitated access to credit and finance for urban agriculture, proven business record, group solidarity (a form of guarantee) and character were equally important. The study recommends amongst others that farmers form groups and embark on savings schemes. Added to this, bankers and farmer associations need to meet to arrive at realistic forms of security for small loans.
- Format
- xiv, 98 leaves
- Format
- Publisher
- Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University
- Publisher
- Faculty of Business and Economic Sciences
- Language
- English
- Rights
- Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University
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