Agricultural Finance Scoping
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SCOPING REPORT Agricultural Finance Scoping An Agriculture Finance Scoping Exercise in eSwatini MAY 2021 DISCLAIMER: This document was prepared by Imani Development International Ltd, and should in no way be considered to represent the views and opinions of FinMark Trust and/or any donors, organisations, or persons. Prepared by Imani Development International Ltd www.imanidevelopment.com About FinMark Trust FinMark Trust is an independent non-profit trust whose purpose is ‘Making financial markets work for the poor, by promoting financial inclusion and regional financial integration’. We pursue our core objective of making financial markets work for the poor through two principle programmes. The first is through the creation and analysis of financial services consumer data to provide in depth insights on both served and unserved consumers across the developing world. The second is through systematic financial sector inclusion and deepening programs to overcome regulatory, supplier and other market level barriers hampering the effective provision of services. Together, these programmes unlock financial inclusion and sector development through a symbiotic relationship between rigorous data collection and research activities. Our work can be found in South Africa, throughout the SADC region and the global arena. For more information: Visit our website at www.finmark.org.za Email [email protected] Call us on +27 11 315 9197 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This report was authored jointly by FinMark Trust and Imani Development. We would like to thank all the individuals who participated in this project in their personal and institutional capacity, without which the project would not have been successful. These stakeholders included government institutions, donor agencies, financial service providers, private sector players and industry associations. Most notably, we would like to extend our gratitude to colleagues from RMI Development, USAID Hub, United Plantations – Banana, Macadamias, Citrus, eSwatini Water & Agricultural Development Enterprise (ESWADE), National Marketing and Agricultural Board (NAMBoard), Solidaridad Network, Swazibank, Sub- Tropical Fruit Growers Association, and Cotton Board. Lastly, we would like to thank the Ministry of Finance for its continued partnership. As well as the Ministry of Agriculture for their engagement on this project. TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES.......................................................................................................................2 ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS...........................................................................................3 1. ESWATINI COUNTRY OVERVIEW ......................................................................................4 1.1. Introduction ............................................................................................................4 1.2 Environmental and Natural Resource Base ..............................................................6 2. AGRICULTURAL OVERVIEW ............................................................................................16 2.1 Primary Production ...............................................................................................16 2.2 Imports and Exports ..............................................................................................28 2.3 Finance for Agriculture .......................................................................................... 31 2.4 Food and Nutritional Security ................................................................................32 2.5 Impact of COVID-19 ...............................................................................................34 2.6 Public Institutional, Legal, Regulatory, and Policy Framework ............................... 35 2.7 Development Partners, Organisations, and Initiatives ...........................................48 2.8 Private Sector and Civil Society Role Players ..........................................................54 2.9 Value Chains Selected for Evaluation and Research ...............................................55 3. COTTON .......................................................................................................................... 57 3.1 Cotton Overview.................................................................................................... 57 3.2 The Importance for Rural Livelihoods and Poverty Reduction ................................ 57 3.3 Current status of value chain .................................................................................60 3.4 Past Challenges and Planned Initiatives .................................................................61 3.5 Recommendations for FinMark Trust ..................................................................... 67 4. BANANAS ........................................................................................................................69 4.1 Overview ...............................................................................................................69 4.2 Structure of the Value Chain in Eswatini ................................................................. 73 4.3 Past, Present Challenges ....................................................................................... 74 4.5 Recommendations for FinMark Trust ..................................................................... 76 5. VEGETABLES ................................................................................................................... 78 5.1 Overview ............................................................................................................... 78 5.2 Structure of the Value Chain .................................................................................. 78 5.3 Challenges and Past and Planned Initiatives to respond .........................................84 5.4 Recommendations for FinMark Trust ..................................................................... 87 5.5 Conclusions ...........................................................................................................88 Notes from sections ................................................................................................................89 6. APPENDICES ...................................................................................................................91 6.1. Appendix A - Value chain selection longlist ............................................................91 6.2. Appendix B– Eswatini value chain scoring matrix ...................................................94 7. REFERENCES ................................................................................................................. 110 1 Agricultural Finance Scoping | eSwatini LIST OF FIGURES Figure 17: ICA eSwatini, 2019 – Agro-ecological zones (2016) ...................................................7 Figure 18: Record of drought events in eSwatini from 1981 to 2013 .........................................12 Figure 19: Cotton Production Statistics (2005-2015) ................................................................24 Figure 20: eSwatini annual egg production (10-year period) ....................................................26 Figure 21: Banana production in eSwatini ............................................................................... 27 Figure 22: 10-Year production cycle for Groundnuts in eSwatini ..............................................28 Figure 23: Showing 78% of MSME business, in high impact groups are located in rural agricultural areas .................................................................................................... 33 Figure 24: IPC Acute Food Insecurity ....................................................................................... 35 Figure 25: eSwatini Cotton farming distribution ......................................................................59 Figure 26: eSwatini - Ten Year Summary of Cotton Production ................................................59 Figure 27: Example Banana Value Chain Map for Malawi (Similar to eSwatini) ........................ 73 Figure 28: Vegetable value chain in eSwatini ........................................................................... 78 Figure 29: Map of eSwatini showing the location of chain supermarkets .................................79 Figure 30: Proportion of vegetables procured by supermarkets in eSwatini from smallholders in 2014 to 2016 ...........................................................................................................80 Figure 31: Sourcing and procurement criteria for vegetables from smallholders by supermarkets, 2017 .................................................................................................82 Figure 32: Smallholders’ choice of marketing channels (NAMBoard vs Supermarkets) ............86 2 Agricultural Finance Scoping | eSwatini ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS Acronym In full AfDB African Development Bank AGOA Africa Growth & Opportunity Act CMA Common Monetary Area COMESA Common Market for Eastern Southern Africa DFID Department for International Development ESA eSwatini Sugar Association ESWADE eSwatini Water & Agricultural Development Enterprise EU European Union FAO Food and Agricultural Organisation FMT FinMark Trust FSDU Farmer Support & Development Unit GM Genetically Modified HVCHP High Value Crop & Horticultural Project ICAC The International Cotton Advisory IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development IPC Infection