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IARBIC was established in 2008 as a five-year, €6 million project to strengthen agriculture in Niger. According to FAO’s latest hunger statistics, Niger has managed to reduce the number of undernourished people threefold over the past 20 years. One in eight people is now affected, compared to almost one in three in 1990-1992. Between 2008 and 2013, the project achieved the following results: 264 input shops were set up (75 of which have benefited from EU funding), bringing the total to 783 (including shops set up in previous years and by partners following IARBIC’s example); some 375 farmer field schools and 750 demonstrations were organized, reaching nearly 7,500 farmers, half of whom were women; 100 “warranty” warehouses were set up, now accessible to some 100,000 farmers; and a €653,000 guarantee fund was established for eight farmers’ federations representing 164,000 farmers.
To boost agricultural productivity, IARBIC promotes innovative microfinance programs to provide smallholder farmers with what they lack most: capital. The project supports a stock credit system known as “collateral,” whereby farmers, rather than selling during the harvest season when prices are low, store part of their harvest and use it as collateral to obtain credit from banks.
In Danja, Niger, farmers’ organizations run by women have successfully increased their incomes and production using this microfinance scheme.
Tchima Ibrahim had a good harvest: nearly 3,500 kilograms of millet from her 3.5-hectare plot. Half of it she keeps for herself, and the other half she can sell when she needs it. For now, she keeps the millet.
During the harvest season, when everyone was selling their crops and prices were low, 52-year-old Tchima did not choose to sell his crops as collateral for a bank loan.
Many women in Danja and surrounding villages in southern Niger follow the same practice. They belong to one of many farmers’ organizations under the umbrella of a union led by Tchima Ibrahim herself. There are 137 women farmers in all.
These women use the loans to engage in income-generating activities, producing peanut oil for sale in the local market. Others raise livestock for sale. This income is a great supplement to the family income and can also be used to buy seeds and fertilizers for the next planting season.
At the same time, part of the proceeds goes directly to the farmers’ organizations to which the women belong. “This is a great example of how IARBIC’s integrated approach works,” said Ibrahim Doubou, the local representative of the Ministry of Agriculture. Because microcredit does not work in isolation. It is a means to strengthen farmers’ organizations, which themselves are at the heart of this approach because they are able to provide smallholders with the means to increase their yields and the knowledge to use them.
Tchima Ibrahim estimates that her harvest is 3,500 kilograms, five times what she used to get. She says this is partly due to the training. They started receiving support from IARBIC in 2009, and three years later the income was enough for the organization to cover its own expenses.
Tchima learned how to choose the best seed variety for her plot. She uses two types of millet seeds, called “zatib” and “sossat.” Another lesson she learned was about “micro-dosing,” the amount of fertilizer that will best increase yields. Tchima showed how to choose the right dose by taking three finger-widths of fertilizer from a bag. “You put the fertilizer in the hole first,” she explained, “then you put the seeds in and cover them with soil.”
Now, Tchima is waiting for the “monsoon to start blowing” to sell her harvest, referring to the lean season when food stocks start to dwindle and prices start to rise. She plans to use the proceeds to pay back the loan and pocket the difference.
But what if the price doesn’t go up? She has been harvesting for four months and the price of millet has not changed. Tchima knows this, but she is confident that the price of millet will start to increase soon.
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