Food security is a nice sounding word for “addressing hunger”.
With the international news that rice prices are soaring everywhere this had a big impact in Madagascar where rice is the food #1 people consume. Farmers normally sell their rice right after harvest when trucks roam the countryside offering fast cash for rice. Transporting it to the city they can triple their profits with one trip.
With the lure of fast money, farmers are tempted to sell all they harvest, not saving enough seed for the next planting season. To counteract this trend Zahana bought 2 tons of rice in the village in 2008 that will be used for the school food for the children. The additional rice will serve as a micro-credit seed fund (literally) where farmers can borrow for the next harvest should they fall short, come planting season next year. In return farmers will be required to give more seed back to Zahana after harvest to increase the revolving fund in the seed bank.
More about Zahanas Microcredit projects
More Zahana micorcredit projects
- Microcredit longer text (2008)
- First micocredit in Fiadanana (2007)
- a 'seed fund' you can eat : (2010)
- Growing trees for the seed fund (2010)
- Potato Seed Fund in Fiarenana (2010)
- Planting trees in the schoolyard (2010)
- Nursery and our master gardener (2008)
- A second gardener for the village of Fiadanana (2010)