The role of informal microfinance institutions in saving

Rural Agricultural clusters
Agriculture is still a backbone of our economy. It contributes more than 50% of the
country’s GDP and accounts for about 60% of the country’s foreign earnings.
Despite existence of many opportunities for commercial agriculture in rural areas,
the barriers are just too daunting for a significant change in commercialization of
agriculture to take place in the foreseeable future. There is need for a radical scheme
to make agriculture viable option, even for graduates of colleges. It is recommended
to establish agricultural clusters cm incubators to nurture and produce commercial
farmers. The proposed scheme could work as follows. Incubator promoters would
identify large tracks of accessible land suitable for pre-determined types of crops or
livestock for which existence of adequate long-term demand will have to be
ascertained in advance.
Young graduates interested in developing a career in commercial agriculture will be
invited to apply for the scheme. Their initial capital may be their labor or loans
from the government or other institutions. Towards the end of their incubation,
they will be allocated developed land where they will build their basic houses. After
two or three years, the physical incubator will relocate to another area, leaving
hundreds of people, each with a significant, productive piece of farm as a cluster.
The incubates could organize themselves into a marketing co-operative and
or/SACCOs, even before the incubator relocates. These incubators can be seen as
some form of agricultural training colleges, with a bias in starting and operating in
agri-business, rather than employment.
There could be many variations of this mode/idea. For example, incubates may pay
fees as they pay in colleges, or they could take a loan for incubation and repay after
graduation. Graduating incubates may have the option of selling their farms to
other people, or some farms so developed could be sold to interested retiring army
or other retirees. It could also be for commercial animal husbandly, including
ranching. The big advantage of this mode is that many of the constraints are
simultaneously addressed. The programme can be funded in different ways and
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