Profit sharing savings and loans, CSP Naroman, Liquiça

(Tetum)The core activity of the Commercial Seed Producer (CSP) groups is to produce commercial seed of the improved maize, rice and peanut varieties that have been released by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. This is however not a year-long activity, and to help strengthen the groups and give them also a more continuous focus, another activity was suggested:Savings and Loans (S&L).

 ?This study reports on two surveys that were conducted with two of such CSP-related S&L activities, in the middle of their first year of S&L operations, and a year later. Even in this short span, the S&L groups already showed remarkable results, with positive trends for the involved households for such matters as food sufficiency, investment, housing, ability to send the kids to the school, and dealing with emergencies.??The study found that the most common use of the loans was to pay education fees, followed by trading, and improving the house or buying assets for the household. Such borrowing schemes clearly fulfill a need for access to finance in rural areas, and there was keen interest from others to join the two S&L groups. PDF file can be downloaded here: Savings and Loans Activities of two Commercial Seed Producer Groups