Funded

Total loan: $225

Safiatou's Group

Toumou, Mali / Farming

A loan helped a member to buy fertilizers to grow groundnut and okra.

Safiatou's Group's story

Safiatou is the woman seated in the middle of the front row wearing a black and white T-shirt and holding a baby in her arms. She belongs to a group of 14 farmers, all women, who live and work in Toumou, a village in Mali. Safiatou is 42 years old; she lives in a family of 14 people, including seven children, five of whom go to school.

She became a farmer to ensure food self-sufficiency, but as a farmer she faces challenges such as the lack of farming tools. She chose to join myAgro because of their payment system. For her first year with myAgro, she has bought fertilizers to grow groundnut and okra on her 1/8-hectare plot of land.

Thanks to this purchase, she hopes to be able to increase her yields, which will help her to buy farming tools (a planting machine) and allow her to build a house.

In this group: Safiatou, Diarah, Diatou, Salimata, Diatou Mamoutou, Balkissa, Djenbou Yacou, Djeneba N* 1, Mamou, Sali, Adissa, Socoura, Djelika, Alima

Translated from French by Kiva volunteer Sophie Narayan. View original language description.

Safiatou, étant assise au milieu habillée en shirt blanc noir avec un bébé entre les mains, est membre d'un groupe de 14 productrices agricoles qui travaillent et vivent dans le village de Toumou, au Mali. Safiatou, qui est âgée de 42 ans, vit dans une famille de 14 personnes dont 7 enfants, 5 d'entre eux sont scolarisé. Elle est devenue agricultrice pour assurer l'autosuffisance alimentaire. Ainsi, elle doit faire face en tant qu'agricultrice, à des difficultés telles que le manque de matériels agricoles. Safiatou, s'est inscrite à myAgro en raison du système de paiement. Pour sa première année avec myAgro, elle a acheté des engrais pour cultiver de l'arachide et gombo sur sa parcelle de 1/8 hectares. A travers cet achat, Safiatou, espère pouvoir augmenter ses rendements afin d'acheter de matériels agricoles tels le semoir et construire de maison.

This loan is special because:

It allows farmers to access high-quality inputs to increase yields and income.

More about this loan

Each farmer has selected a planting goal earlier in the year, and they then purchase pre-paid myAgro scratch cards using their mobile phones to pay for high quality fertilizer and seeds on layaway. This is a transparent and flexible way for farmers to pay for the agricultural inputs they need each season. myAgro will deliver the fertilizer and seed packages each farmer has purchased to each village before planting time and provide technical training and weekly on-farm field follow up to enable these farmers to increase their yields and income by 50-100%. Though the farmers have not yet completed their layaway plan, it is time for myAgro to purchase seeds and fertilizer for these farmers in order to ensure that everything is ready in time for planting in June. This Kiva loan will cover the cost of those inputs not already covered by these farmers' layaway payments, and will thus be used to provide borrowers with needed goods or services, as opposed to cash or financial credit . Inputs will be purchased in March, and this loan will be repaid in July and August, once farmers have completed their savings packages and received their input packages.

About myAgro:

myAgro is a startup nonprofit organization in West Africa that enables farmers to purchase high-quality agricultural inputs - certified seeds and fertilizer - on layaway through an SMS-based platform and a network of local vendors. Additionally, the organization helps farmers to increase their crop yields by using more effective seeding machines. Kiva lenders' funds are used to help these farmers afford more labor-reducing and cost-effective seeding machines through loans with low interest rates so that they can increase their yields and improve their quality of life.