Seven reporters from Radio Netherlands Worldwide travelled round the globe looking for small-scale businesses which had been offered microcredit. Their stories are to be featured from 25 January in this web dossier.
To whet your appetite, here's a sneak preview from Surinam, followed by a short account of how it came about from its maker, Marijke van den Berg.
Tjikoeri Rudradew, a 23-year-old rice farmer from Nickerie, used microfinance for the first time last year. Up to then, he had been dependent for capital on rice wholesalers. That meant high interest, tough repayment conditions and being tied to sell to the same wholesaler. Microfinance has made him more independent. A first step towards a better future.
Microfinance in Surinam is in its infancy. Since 2006, just one foundation has been offering microcredit loans and on a very limited scale. In the first year, 38 farmers were given money. In 2009, the number has risen to 194, still not many. For the farmers concerned, however, the project is very important.
Mr Rudradew is a man of few words. Even before the camera was rolling, he didn’t say much when I tried to get to know him a little. Still, a strong image emerged of a young man more or less forced to take over his father’s work four years ago because the older man couldn’t cope. Although he would have preferred to finish training as a soldier, he followed in his father’s footsteps out of a sense of duty. It remains unclear whether or not his father had got into debt.
Palm trees
We moved into the paddy fields to do the filming. Beautiful green fields, fringed by palm trees and simple houses built on poles. Mr Rudradew’s harvest was looking good thanks to the fertiliser and pesticides he had been able to buy with his microcredit loan 2000 SRD (515 euros).
Unfortunately that didn’t mean he would make much when he came to sell his rice. Price fixing allows the wholesalers to keep the amount they pay down, while fertiliser brought in from outside remains expensive. The harvest would probably give Mr Rudradew enough to pay off this year’s microcredit loan, but he would in all likelihood need another loan next sowing season. This cycle could go on for years if the price he gets for his rice fails to go up and the cost of fertiliser doesn’t come down.
Head above water
His story arouses mixed emotions in me. Microcredit allows rice farmers like Mr Rudradew to keep their heads above water, just. But they still are unable to do anything about the wholesalers’ cartels, which keep the price of rice low. Microcredit appears simply to be a first step and not to offer a definitive end to the vicious circle of dependency.
Click to watch the video: Young rice farmer struggling despite microcredit
Camera: Roland Kremer
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Much of the microcredit money goes to buy fertilisers and pesticides that are toxic for the soil and people. Why don't they do natural farming? The yield would be less, but the soil and people will remain safe, and they will be able to payoff the debts. In the Indian story too, the woman had used money for dowry of her daughter, another dispensable expenditure.
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