When Women give Crisis Loans to Small Farmers
From July 2020 to November 2020, two women led small Farmer Producer Companies (FPOs) – Manjiri and Vijayalaxmi went to the doorstep of farmers in Osmanabad district, in Marathwada region – with interest free loans to revive farming after COVID-19.
Rani and Shaila Tai – Directors of the FPOs and farmers themselves, said “It was time to take responsibility and help our small farmers. We had several meetings with farmer-members. Understood their needs and explained how the loan would work”. In every village, the FPO director visited every woman farmer, met all family members mostly the men. Next visit, we made sure that the loan would be used for kharif sowing and would be returned, once the harvesting was done.
We pledged a guarantee from the FPO members and got the loan money from RangDe (to know more, visit www.rangde.in/ssp). All members decided to vote YES for this guarantee, means the FPO pays if our farmers don’t repay.
Komal another Director, had several meetings with farmers to convince them that these loans were special, given to revive agriculture and livelihoods and yet need to be recovered as soon as the soya, moong, udid, pulses were sold.
#KisanDiwas #FarmersDay
https://swayamshikshanprayog.org/voices-of-women/
www.rangde.in/ssp