Banks have extended the loan payment period for farmers who bought agricultural inputs in the previous farming season after their crops were destroyed by flooding.

This comes as a huge relief to thousands of farmers whose crops and acres of farmland were destroyed by heavy rains earlier this year.

Farmers had asked the government to help them negotiate for an extension of their loan repayment schedules with financial institutions.

“We held talks with the banks and we agreed for farmers to pay back the loans in the next farming season with no interest for the delayed period,” said Apollinaire Gahiza, head of the rice farmers’ co-operatives federation.

Most of the farmers in Eastern province were affected by the floods and they incurred the costs for fertilisers and seeds, which they have to pay back after the harvest as well as pay off bank loans.

The hardest hit are maize and rice farmers along marshlands in the Eastern Province where floods destroyed several acres of rice crops — the most cultivated crop in the area — resulting in huge losses for thousands of homes.

Mr Gahiza said the federation lost over 3,000 out of 10,000 hectares of rice to flooding. In Rurambi and Mwogo marshlands in Bugesera District, the more than 2,500 rice growers only harvested from five hectares out of over 550 hectares of rice, translating to losses of about Rwf930 million.

According to figures from the rice farmers’ co-operatives federation, the amount includes over Rwf223 million in bank loans and Rwf611 million worth of input that went into waste due to the floods last March.

Farmers have also voiced concern about a delay on agriculture inputs for the next farming season, which could hamper their efforts to increase their production and pay back the backlog on loaned seeds, fertilisers and bank loans.