A dedicated micro credit fund for rural Madagascar

This post rice harvest season we will do a micro credit project with rice, once again. It is based on the successful philosophy of the rice seed bank of years earlier. But this time we do it with the association of parents from the school in Fiarenana only. The goal of this project is to raise funds to maintain their school with the profits. This way the community gets empowered to support their school financially, without draining hard-earned harvest money from the parents.

The teachers in both schools have approached us as well to do a rice microcredit project with them. This will need some more meetings and clarification, especially if they envision this and a “private” enterprise, or a contract with them individually. We are very inclined to work with them, since out teachers are important opinion leaders in the community.

We decided to not re-launch the same project in Fiadanana again, based on our past experiences. The group in Fiadanana did not keep to the contract we had all signed. We think the best way to illustrate that there are consequences is to show them that we do continue to work with the people that do keep to their contract.

Improving crops and agricultural yields has always been the backbone of our microcredit projects. Our team in Madagascar has been continuously exploring different options to accomplish that (see Artemisia).

In the spring of 2013 representatives of Nestlé made a presentation at the Ministry of health about an improved rice variety a, a seed known as “Nerica”. This new rice variety ‘Nercia’ is a result of crossing two varieties of rice seeds.  It is enriched with zinc and iron, both a very important mineral for health, that are sadly very much lacking in Madagascar's nutrition.

Our founder, Dr. Ihanta, a medical doctor by training, was very interested in the prospect of these new seeds and the ability to increase the availability of zinc and iron.  The rate of anemia is extremely high among women and children in the entire country of Madagascar, and consequently also in our villages. The company got the ministry's approval to run a few pilot projects in Madagascar.  Zahana was chosen as one of their pilot sites.

Initially 10 families participated in the community of Fiadanana. Five families planted seeds suitable for rice paddies (paddies are fed by a permanent water source, such as a well) and five in rain-fed rice fields. An engineer from Nestlé visited the villages regularly to assist with know-how and to monitor and document the process. In addition she studied how rice was traditionally stored, cooked, and consumed in the villages. All costs related to the pilot project were covered by Nestlé; from the seeds to the engineer’s repeated visits to the village.

Two of the photos show the yields of the first harvest that was very promising. Some of the community members decided to participate the second year to see if the seed can indeed provide higher yields than what they had been traditionally planting. The village of Fiarenana has also requested to be included in future pilot projects