Seedloans — empowering female farmers 👩🏽🌾
When our professor told us to write about a social innovation, my mind immediately jumped to a project that a friend of mine established during her bachelor’s. The project’s called Seedloans and it empowers female smallholder farmers in Uganda through a non-monetary microfinancing system.
Microfinance has been on the rise over the last few decades, especially as a way to empower people in rural regions in Africa. The reason for that is that in many areas, currencies aren’t the main source of trade. Instead, people often still use resources to trade. Microfinance can be a strong tool to empower people in these rural areas, as its loans aren’t dependent.
So how does it work❓
It’s actually pretty simple! A farmer gets roughly 10kg of bean seeds. She plants them on her own field and then harvests about ten times as many seeds three months later. 20kg of seeds goes back to Seedloans, while the farmer gets to keep the other 80kg to sell and reinvest into her small farm. Seedloans also offer to sell the 80kg for them, giving them access to larger markets and giving the women more bargaining power. Additionally, Seedloans can also store the product for them, lowering market entry barriers for women. The process then repeats at the end of the next season, where the farmer can get even more seeds from Seedloans, as she gradually expands her field.
Apart from the microloans, Seedloans offers women a group environment where they can share their experiences with other women. Additionally, women get access to digital tools to connect with Seedloans and understand their agricultural problems better.
But why? 🤔
Good question! Why can’t these women just buy their own seeds and establish their own farms? What’s the problem that Seedloans solves? Well, there are actually three main problems Seedloans solves:
Low Productivity 📉
Sub-Saharan Africa still struggles with a low yield per acre of farmland. That means that many people still only get enough crops to satisfy their own consumption, but there’s no economic gain through farming activities. Seedloans allows them to learn about more efficient farming methods, connect with other farmers to learn from each other, and get enough seeds to start yielding beans on a larger scale.
Value Chain Problems ⛓️
Rural farmers usually have no access to financing or selling opportunities, let alone storage units. Giving access to the resources required empowers these people economically.
Gender Inequality 👩👨
Women often lack the connections and resources needed to build sustained farming methods. This affects not only the women but also their entire families. Empowering these women could be a huge step towards helping some of the poorest people in the world.
So far, Seedloans has helped over 1,000 farmers in 5 seasons to create a sustained foundation upon which they can build their life upon.
Personal Thoughts 💭
I think that helping others through economic empowerment is the most powerful way to elevate people out of poverty. Donating food or other resources to people can help in the short-term, but ultimately will not be sustainable and can even hurt these people, as they become dependent on donations. Sustained social innovations, such as Seedloans, empower women to take care of their own families. They allow people to have a stable source of income, a routine in their job, and maybe even help them find a purpose.
Seedloans tackles multiple UN SDGs, such as Zero Hunger and Gender Equality, and doesn’t rely on donations to work. It helps some of the people who are in dire need of help, which I think is one of the most important ways to use social innovation.
However, some may argue that the loan payback might be too big. Ultimately, the farmers have to effectively take a loan with 100% interest! While they do receive help from local experts, this could also bear a risk for them. For the first season, they’re completely dependent on Seedloans.
What are your thoughts on Seedloans? Do you think projects like this one can be scalable solutions for low-income countries? What dangers do you think this project could bear? And for whom? Let me know!
Sources:
Seedloans: https://seedloans.org/
Microfinance: https://www.eib.org/en/products/loans/microfinance/index.htm
