The “Agricultural Fund” reschedules 1,183 contracts for defaulting loans worth 604 million riyals

The Agricultural Development Fund rescheduled 1,183 loan contracts worth 604 million riyals to a number of investors and farmers who faced payment difficulties during the past year.

Habib Al-Shammari, the official spokesman for the Agricultural Development Fund, told Al-Iqtisadiah that one of the Fund’s most important goals during 2024 is to finance priority agricultural products and contribute to the gross domestic product of agriculture, as the total targeted financing during this year reaches seven billion riyals.

These funds enhance the role of the Development Fund to cover the activities of the agricultural sector in accordance with its strategic objectives and in integration with the policies of the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture and the food security strategy in supporting and developing the agricultural sector and its associated support services, as well as helping to cover agricultural supply chains and contributing to enhancing the stock of agricultural crops and achieving food security. .

The fund’s objectives include collecting outstanding loans and structuring troubled debts, in addition to a number of internal objectives such as developing the digitization of procedures and services, developing and strengthening human resources capabilities, and raising the rate of compliance with cybersecurity controls and systems, regulations and legislation.

Last year, the Fund announced the launch of new initiatives and financing programs to encourage investment in the agricultural sector with the aim of contributing to supporting the local agricultural sector and achieving food security. The new financing programs included financing food security projects, supply chain projects and marketing of agricultural products and industries (food/processing), as well as projects with a strategic dimension.

The new programs aim to strengthen the infrastructure of the agricultural sector to be able to confront crises, raise self-sufficiency rates to reach the target, support local stocks of food commodities, support supply chains and ensure market stability, localize the technologies required in the agricultural sector, raise production efficiency and reduce the depletion of natural resources. And energy resources, in addition to supporting entrepreneurs and owners of specific projects, productive projects, marketing agricultural products, and increasing job opportunities in the agricultural sector.​

The Fund also announced at the beginning of this year the launch of the “Financing Innovative Startups” program to finance specific agricultural projects supported by the Research and Innovation Agency in the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture, with the aim of supporting, developing and developing the entrepreneurship system in the agricultural sector and contributing to maximizing and diversifying the economic impact of this sector, and sustaining its growth. Achieving leadership and creating an attractive investment environment in it, and this was in conjunction with the launch of the “Sunbula” program affiliated with the Ministry’s Research and Innovation Agency.