Microloans, Greenhouses Help Women (IPS)

Read at :

http://ipsnews.net/2012/03/kenya-microloans-greenhouses-help-women-cope-with-climate-change/

KENYA: Microloans, Greenhouses Help Women Cope with Climate Change

By Isaiah Esipisu

NAIROBI, Mar 2 2012 (IPS) – At Gakoromone Market in Meru, in Kenya’s Eastern Province, Ruth Muriuki arrives in a pickup full of tomatoes and cabbages despite the scarcity of rainfall in the area, thanks to the greenhouse technology she uses on her farm – and microcredit.

“A bundle of ten tomatoes which would cost Sh40 (50 cents of a dollar) three months ago is now going for double the price. But we have no choice,” said David Njogu, a vegetable dealer at the open-air market. Muriuki is selling a big sugarloaf cabbage, which would have cost 50 cents three months ago, at 1.50 dollars.

A spot check in the country shows that prices of horticultural produce have shot up in the past three months following the failure of short rains, which were expected to come between October and December last year.

However, farmers who use the greenhouse technology do not need rainfall for their crops to grow.

In the greenhouses, generally made of glass or transparent plastic roof and walls, temperature and humidity can be controlled, making it possible for farmers to grow crops year-round.

Like Muriuki, Sarah Chebet from Nandi hills in the Rift Valley Province describes her two-year experience with greenhouse farming as “a dream come true.”

“I bought my greenhouse through credit offered by a local microfinance institution. Through the project within the past two years, I have been able to buy a maize milling machine, I have put up a retail shop, I have bought two dairy cows, and I have bought a stock of 400 kilograms of maize, which I intend to sell once the prices shoot up,” said the 28-year-old mother of one.

From a single greenhouse, she picks an average of four crates of tomatoes per weekly harvest, which fetches her about 100 dollars per week.

Nandi hills is one of the dry regions in the country, where rainfall is not guaranteed throughout the year.

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AGRA, guarantor for loans and, at harvest, farmers pay for the inputs and services (African Agriculture)

Read at :

http://www.africanagricultureblog.com/2012/02/agra-project-to-improve-farmer-yields.html

AGRA project to improve farmer yields in Ghana begins to bear fruit

by James Karuga

Farmers in Tamale, Northern Ghana are beginning to enjoy the fruits of a three year breadbasket initiative launched in 2010, aimed at doubling yields, increasing the food security and incomes of around 250,000 smallholder farmers, and creating 15,000 jobs in agriculture-related sectors including agro-dealership, marketing, transport, and processing.

The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) is supporting Ghana’s Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) to implement the project at community level.

For example, farmers are being taught to plant crops for higher yields: in line and correctly spaced, rather than scattering them randomly. Farmers are also taught about manure, composting, appropriate fertilizers and the quantities to apply. Farmers involved in the initiative are required to have at least one acre of land in order to access credit facilities from the bank to acquire farm inputs, such as fertilizers and quality seed from agro-dealers.

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$10 million to help small farmers in Lesotho (African Agriculture)

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http://www.africanagricultureblog.com/2012/01/lesotho-new-financing-aims-to-help.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+africanagricultureblog%2FNaEx+%28African+Agriculture%29

Lesotho: new financing aims to help rural farmers

The United Nations agency that works to improve the lives of the world’s rural poor is providing $10 million to help small farmers in Lesotho boost agricultural production.

The agreement signed in Rome between the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Government of Lesotho comprises a $5 million loan and a $5 million grant to increase market opportunities for smallholder farmers and improve production in four of the tiny nation’s 10 districts.

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Access to small loans and basic financial training of smallholder rural farmers (NGO News Africa)

Read at :

http://www.ngonewsafrica.org/?p=10336

Kenyan company trains and lends to farmers under UN-backed initiative

An investment company in Kenya announced today that it will provide some 100,000 smallholder rural farmers – the majority of them women – with access to small loans and basic financial training over the next five years as part of the company’s commitment to a United Nations-backed initiative to alleviate poverty.

Juhudi Kilimo, which operates in rural Kenya where farmers lack access to bank loans, will provide credit and training as part of its commitment to the Business Call to Action (BCtA), a global initiative supported by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the corporate responsibility scheme known as the UN Global Compact and several other organizations and governments.

It provides Kenyan farmers’ groups with two-month workshops on agribusiness and financial practices before offering them the opportunity to apply for loans. Farmers can then use the credit to buy assets such as dairy cows, seeds and equipment to help them boost their livelihoods, enabling them to pay the loans at below market rates.

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KENYAN COMPANY TRAINS AND LENDS TO FARMERS UNDER UN-BACKED INITIATIVE (UN News)

New York, Nov 11 2011 12:05PM

An investment company in Kenya announced today that it will provide some 100,000 smallholder rural farmers – the majority of them women – with access to small loans and basic financial training over the next five years as part of the company’s commitment to a United Nations-backed initiative to alleviate poverty.

Juhudi Kilimo, which operates in rural Kenya where farmers lack access to bank loans, will provide credit and training as part of its commitment to the Business Call to Action (BCtA), a global initiative supported by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the corporate responsibility scheme known as the UN Global Compact and several other organizations and governments.

It provides Kenyan farmers’ groups with two-month workshops on agribusiness and financial practices before offering them the opportunity to apply for loans. Farmers can then use the credit to buy assets such as dairy cows, seeds and equipment to help them boost their livelihoods, enabling them to pay the loans at below market rates.

“Access to financial services enables rural smallholder farmers to take the leap from subsistence farming to market-based farming, thereby increasing their productivity and income for the long term,” <“http://www.beta.undp.org/undp/en/home/presscenter/pressreleases/2011/11/11/kenya-based-firm-to-provide-100-000-small-farmers-with-micro-loans.html”>said Amanda Gardiner, the acting programme manager for the BCtA.

“Juhudi Kilimo [which means “Efforts in Agriculture” in Kiswahili] is providing farmers with tools to escape the cycle of poverty and earn a sustainable livelihood through its innovative approach to investing.”

An estimated 75 per cent of the Kenyan workforce is involved in agriculture and related activities. Many of them lack basic agricultural training, equipment, and market connections they need in order to grow their business.

Since the launch of the pilot phase of the project in 2009, Juhudi Kilimo has provided asset financing to over 7,000 smallholder farmers in Kenya, half of them women. The average repayment rate for these loans is 96 per cent.
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The successes of Bangladeshes microcredit (MC) programmes (IPS)

Read at :

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=105502

BANGLADESH

Reducing Poverty Hinges on Microcredit – Yunus

By Naimul Haq

Reducing poverty in Bangladesh will depend critically on sustaining the successes of the country’s microcredit (MC) programmes, says Muhammad Yunus, the economist who shared the 2006 Nobel peace prize with his creation, Grameen Bank.

“Microcredit programmes play an important role in achieving the United Nations Millennium Development Goal-1, that calls for reducing poverty by half by 2015,” Yunus told IPS in an interview.

“Poverty in Bangladesh reduced at the rate of one percent per year during the 1990s, and during the period 2000-2005 it declined at a rate of 1.7 percent per year. That makes Bangladesh well-positioned to achieve this MDG,” Yunus said.

But, Yunus, who was controversially removed as Grameen (rural) Bank’s managing director in March, said there were worries about the future of his brainchild. “We all do hope that Grameen will be able to operate the way it has all these years, but are not sure if it will be able to do so.

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Gum Arabic Producers Associations : microfinancing (IFAD)

Read at :

http://ifad-un.blogspot.com/2011/10/sfrome-microfinance-to-support-gum.html

#sfrome: Microfinance to support Gum Arabic Producers Associations (156)

Posted by Beate Stalsett

Written by Maria Losacco

Do we all know what gum Arabic looks like and what it could be used for? The gum Arabic processed products that project staff brought from Sudan and the pictures from the field helped participants to “visualise” the project and its outcomes: this orange resin can actually take several commercial forms and be a precious source of income for people in Sudan.

In the fact IFAD-supported “Revitalizing the Sudan Gum Arabic Production and Marketing Project” aims to increase the production and income of small scale gum producers in selected areas of the gum belt. In particular, as gum Arabic tapping starts right before the sorghum harvest, when household food and cash reserves are at their lowest, addressing the problem of poor access to formal rural financing services for small-scale producers becomes key.

Which are the reasons for microfinance failure?
How can we tackle this difficulties?
Which tools/actions can we use to ensure the sustainability of microfinance?

These three questions led the group discussions.

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Providing micro-loans to hard-up women (IPS)

Read at :

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=105158

Accessible Micro-Loans Help Poor Women in Rural South Africa

By Correspondents*

JOHANNESBURG, Sep 19, 2011 (IPS/The Big Issue South Africa) – While women still lag grossly behind men in terms of bringing home the bacon, a new entrepreneurship organisation, Financial Independence Through Entrepreneurship (FITE), is working to swing the balance of economic power in South Africa by providing micro-loans to hard-up women.

According to a 2010 Job Crystal survey, white men earn 53 percent more than white women in South Africa and 116 percent more than black women. The same survey suggests that overall men earn 41 percent more than women.

And South Africa is not alone in having lopsided scales of economic balance between the sexes.

According to Financial Independence Through Entrepreneurship (FITE), women perform 66 percent of the world’s work, produce 50 percent of the world’s food and invest 90 percent of their income in their families. However, women account for 70 percent of the world’s poverty, earn only 10 percent of the world’s income and own only one percent of the world’s land.

Powered by global non-profit micro-lending organisation KIVA, FITE aims to empower women in developed and developing countries worldwide through the provision of micro-loans. Since its official launch in South Africa in February, 30 South African women have been recipients of loans through FITE.

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A unique microfinance programme launched by a local NGO (IPS)

Read at :

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=56393

BANGLADESH

Women Raise Own Funds for Microfinance

By Naimul Haq

DHAKA, Jul 7, 2011 (IPS) – Amidst despair and poverty, women in some remote villages of Bangladesh are raising money and lending it to each other through a unique microfinance programme launched by a local non-government organisation.

Unlike the traditional microfinance arrangements where credit comes from external sources or development partners, the local NGO Pally Bikash Kendra (PBK) has taken a different approach where beneficiaries themselves generate and save money to help small businesses survive.

Called “Self-Help”, the programme was launched four-and-a-half years ago in the wetlands of Mithamoin in Kishoreganj district in central Bangladesh, less than 150 kms from the capital Dhaka. Today, the 317 women’s groups operating in the area have a combined fund of roughly 15 million taka or over 200,000 dollars.

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Microcredit, a successful part of anti-poverty programmes (IPS)

Read at :

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=55863

Major Microlaboratory Against Poverty

By Fabiana Frayssinet

RIO DE JANEIRO, May 31, 2011 (IPS) – Microcredit in Brazil still has huge potential for expansion, even though microloans have already grown much more than traditional credit in the last eight years.

Microcredit has formed a successful part of anti-poverty programmes since left-wing former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took office in January 2003 and immediately launched the National Productive Microcredit Programme, targeting low-income households.

Capital to enable women to be self-sufficient (AfricaFiles / IPS)

Read at :

http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=25224

Kenya: Women pull together against poverty

Summary & Comment: Microfinance institutions unlock capital to enable women to be self sufficient. Kenyan women benefit from the resources that micro capital affords them. Village and community based projects benefit from these loans. DH

Author: Isaiah Esipisu
Date Written: 13 April 2011
Primary Category: Eastern Region
Document Origin: Inter Press Service News Agency
Secondary Category: -none-
Source URL: http://www.ipsnews.net
Key Words: Kenya, women, microcredit, projects,

African Charter Article #18: The State will protect the family as the natural unit and basis of society; the rights of women, children, the aged, and the disabled will be protected. (Click for full text…)

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http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=55243

Kenyan Women Pulling Together Against Poverty

Isaiah Esipisu

KIAMBU DISTRICT, Kenya, Apr 13 (IPS) – When it works, it’s spectacular: Esther Ngonyo Njuguna’s dairy project stands as testimony to the potential of microcredit schemes to boost rural incomes.

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Grameen Bank (The Economist)

Read at :

http://www.economist.com/node/17857429?story_id=17857429&CFID=158086081&CFTOKEN=85024161

Saint under siege

A microfinance pioneer is under attack in his homeland

IN MUCH of the world Muhammad Yunus is known as the genial pioneer of microcredit and the winner of the 2006 Nobel peace prize. Yet in his native Bangladesh Mr Yunus’s reputation is under attack. His supporters fear that the government plans to remove him from Grameen Bank, the microlender he founded, and take it over. In late December Mr Yunus had to issue a statement denying claims by some in the Bangladeshi government that he had resigned from his post as the managing director of Grameen.

The initial trigger for the attack on Mr Yunus was a documentary screened on Norwegian television in November, which dredged up an old controversy about the use of development funds provided to Grameen by Norad, the Norwegian aid agency, in the 1990s. Grameen transferred the ownership of the Norwegian funds from one Grameen entity, fearing its tax-exempt status might be changed, to another. Discomforted, the Norwegian government asked Grameen Bank, which had originally been given the funds, to retain ownership. This was done in 1998. The Norwegian government said in early December that a probe by Norad had failed to uncover any evidence that its money was used for unintended purposes, or that Grameen had engaged in corrupt practices.

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