Agricultural credit and start-up funding for small-scale irrigation cooperatives (Mali)

Providing lowland farmer cooperatives with self-managed, self-renewing financial resources for the purpose of facilitating members’ access to farming inputs.

Once the infrastructure has been put in place, cooperatives are supported in drawing up their cropping plans (rice and vegetable growing). This support is provided in the context of value enhancement. The cropping plans include forecasting in relation to sites and the input needs of member farmers. The funds provided by the project are targeted towards supporting the empowerment of cooperatives and constitute non-repayable grants. Cooperatives use these financial resources to provide their members with loans to grow crops. When these crops are sold, the loans are repaid to the cooperatives along with a small percentage of interest to renew the loan facility. The loan awarding system, interest rates and repayment deadline are clearly defined by the cooperative. Women have access to gender-specific mechanisms, such as a facility to access credit without providing any personal contribution. The grant is awarded following a capacity-building process focusing on the management and governance of the cooperative. Following negotiations, the programme funds the cooperative’s cropping plan on the basis of a collaboration agreement. Support with managing the funds is delivered by a consultant. The grant is paid into the cooperative’s bank account. The cooperative organises the procurement of inputs, in collaboration with the service provider. Loans are provided in kind (seed, fertilisers, pesticides, etc.) rather than as cash. Those tasked with managing the cooperative are given training in how to use a range of management tools (drawing up cropping plans; keeping stock inventory, loan and repayment records; managing removal and delivery receipts; etc.). At the end of the growing season, the loans are repaid in kind (seed) and in cash (fertilisers and fungicides) in accordance with a predetermined timetable, thus replenishing the fund.
The structuring, organisational strengthening and management capacity building activities are delivered by the consultant from the outset of the scheme’s implementation phase. Groups of actors are encouraged to organise themselves as cooperatives (women and men rice growers, vegetable and other kinds of growers, etc.). These cooperatives, with the support of the consultancies, act as the representative for managing funds. They draw up their cropping plans (list of member producers and their farmland, and evaluation of the input requirements requested by producers) and define the system for awarding loans (the access conditions, repayment methods, timetables and interest levels are set by the cooperatives). An agreement setting out the ways in which the programme will provide support through a contracted service provider is signed. Funds are paid into the relevant bank account and the cooperative then procures the inputs. The cooperative managers, using the management tools at their disposal, distribute the inputs to producers. A public audit is organised to inform members about the status of loans. The recovery of loans with interest makes it possible to replenish the fund (with payments paid into the cooperative’s bank account). The public audit into the loan repayment situation is a medium for deploying coercive measures to recover unpaid loans.
The cooperatives catalogue needs, coordinate the preparation of the cropping plan, set the access conditions for loans, undertake procurement and ensure the recovery of loans from members. The communes participate in debriefings, facilitate the settlement of misunderstandings between producers and cooperatives, and monitor technical support provision. The intermunicipal body facilitates communication and negotiation between communes and the programme. Consultancies deliver management training and advisory support on technical aspects of farming, and facilitate the procurement of inputs suited to the farming condition of each site. Technical services participate in evaluation meetings and act as advisors to the service providers and programme team.