Lift Above Poverty (LAPO) Micro-Finance has lamented that most farmers are inconsistent in the repayment of loans. Loan Recovery Officer, Susan Adoga, stated this, yesterday, during a stakeholders’ meeting organised by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) in Makurdi.

She said most farmers do not pay back their loans and as such, most money-lending institutions were reluctant to invest their resources in farmers, whether in cash, implements or farm inputs.

Meanwhile, IFAD-Value Chain Development Programme (VCDP) Rural Finance Officer, Rosemary Iorngirim, has advised farmers to use their loans to improve on their farming activities rather than diverting them to other ventures.

Iorngirim said that if they borrow funds and invest in farming, they would not have difficulty in repaying back, adding that if they also repay at the stipulated time, they would be eligible for higher loans to enhance their businesses.

She, however, urged farmers to always insure their farms against natural disasters so that they could be paid indemnity by the insurance firms in the event of disasters and unforeseen circumstances.

Iorngirim also encouraged farmers to form partnerships for their overall benefit, adding that the partnership should be between them and off-takers as well as financial institutions.

“A partnership brings together institutional capabilities and human resources in the form of skills, experiences and ideas to tackle common problems that are often beyond the capacity of a single organisation or group,” Iorngirim said.