TUNIS - The over-indebtedness of Tunisian farmers hinders the sector's development and investment in this field.
This is what appeared from an international study on "Agricultural Finance in Tunisia," whose results were discussed Wednesday in Tunis.
The study was conducted by the World Bank (WB), the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the French Development Agency (AFD) in response to a request of the Tunisian Government dating back to 2009.
The study has put forward 15 proposals to strengthen the efficiency of agricultural finance.
These proposals focus around the following axes: strengthening the role of micro-finance in agricultural finance, necessary improvement of risk management, development of role of professional bodies in agricultural financing and improvement of the quality of financial services to agriculture.
The study, presented at a workshop in Tunis, called for streamlining the indebtedness of Tunisian farmers, a quarter of whom i.e. nearly 120 thousand farmers, are over-indebted. Seventy per cent of whom are small farmers.
To overcome this situation, the document suggested enacting a "law on personal recovery."
A committee involving the Central Bank of Tunisia, the "Société Tunisienne de Banque" (STB) and the "Banque Nationale Agricole" (BNA), as well as the ministries of finance, investment and international co-operation was entrusted with monitoring the implementation of recommendations of this study, said Minister of Agriculture Mohamed Ben Salem.
The Minister summed up the problems faced by the agricultural sector in Tunisia in five axes, a limited coverage by insurance (7% of farmers are not insured), the lack of an efficient mechanism of insurance against natural disaster (floods, drought...), a poor contribution of banks in the sector's finance, (over 15% of the overall amount of agricultural investment) in addition to the weak adherence of farmers in mutual associations of agricultural services (5% of farmers).
With regard to agricultural insurance, Ben Salem announced that the AFD has granted a donation to the Agricultural Ministry to conduct a study on the setting up of a pilot project of insurance against drought in 2013.
© Tunis-Afrique Presse 2013
