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Nesia Mhaka Herald Reporter
Government, through Agribank has secured a US$10,5 million facility for irrigation equipment and machinery under the Pedstock Centre Pivots Irrigation Facility (Phase 2) from Spain, which will benefit both large and small-scale farmers, as the country moves to improve productivity.

The development comes at a time when the Government recently secured two facilities worth US$102 million with the Belarusian government and John Deere to end the over reliance on rain-fed agriculture and produce all-year round.

The country’s premier agriculture bank, Agribank, which was mandated by Government to oversee the facilities will also administer the facility to ensure there is transparency and independence.

Agribank chief executive, Mr Sam Malaba told The Herald that the move was targeted at increasing the area under functional irrigation and focus would be on rehabilitation, construction and modernisation of existing irrigation schemes.

“The US$10,5 million Pedstock Centre Pivots Irrigation Facility is for acquisition of centre pivots (Phase 2) as part of Government’s on-going farm mechanisation programmes for enhanced agriculture production and productivity,” said Mr Malaba.