AgriBank’s mentorship programme improve income of farmers
A mentorship impact survey conducted by Agribank recently saw 39% of AgriBank’s mentees indicating an increase in their earnings, above or equal to N$100,000 per annum, mainly due to improvement in their farm management as well as marketing skills.
According to the study, prior to the mentorship 96% of mentees recorded an annual income below N$100,000 from their farms, and after the introduction of the mentorship programme, 39% of AgriBank’s mentees indicated an increase in their earnings, above or equal to N$100,000 per annum.
The study shows that overall, mentees value the mentorship service as shown by the mentee rating of the service between excellent (72%) and good (21%). Moreover, 92% expressed willingness to pay for mentorship services albeit at an affordable rate.
AgriBank’s communications manager, Rino Muranda, said the extent of mentee arrears has reduced over the mentorship period, while other findings of the study indicates that the drive towards diversification requires mentorship to equally impart skills to mentees in diversified enterprises.
“Diversification of the current mentor pool to include crop and poultry enterprises will be crucial.
The need for an increase in physical or virtual training events focusing on diversified enterprises and input substitution such as fodder production will be required,” Muranda said.
The study suggested that mentorship should ideally be offered to clients that are full time farmers as mentorship requires time, dedication and the application of skills learnt. Moreover, results show greater effects of mentorship on fulltime clients.
“Innovative modalities to deliver mentorship services will be required to cater for eventualities and restrictive limitations such as those posed by COVID-19, the study reveals. It also suggested the introduction of hotline services to assist farmers,” Muranda added.
