|
--. ---..-. -" -- -- _" ----*.- ---.-" ...; -t
t-e -nv-ersi Vy- F-oii
Conference on
GENDER ISSUES IN FARMING SYSTEMS
RESEARCH AND EXTENSION
THE VILLAGE BANK REACHES THE FARM WOMAN;
A CASE FROM EGYPT
Kathleen Howard-Merriam
Associate Professor
Bowling Green State University
Bowling Green, Ohio
Presented at GENDER ISSUES IN FARMING SYSTEMS RESEARCH AND
EXTENSION Conference
Sponsored by THE WOMEN IN AGRICULTURE PROGRAM
at the University of Florida
February 26-March 1, 1986
INTRODUCTION
"Bankers on Motorbikes Give Third World Loans" was a recent
headline in the Christian Science Monitor (November 5, 1985)
reporting on three case studies of bank credit being extended to
the landless rural poor in Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal. This
headline might well have have applied to another case in Egypt
where the Village Bank of the Principal Bank for Development and
Agricultural Credit(PBDAC) founded by the Ministry of Agriculture
has been providing loans to small farmers, owning or renting no
more than five acres of land under a grant from USAID {United
States Agency for International Development] in the amount of $25
million and the Egyptian government's contribution of $8.9
million.
This Small F armer Production Project(SFPP) is intended to
enhance the access of small farmers to production inputs
including extension assistance and credit in three Governorates
as a pilot effort. The Project involves all aspects of the
operations of the Village Bank: administration and management,
farm management, credit, training, storage and handling of
inputs.
The Project, since its inception in 1981, has had a marked
impact on the use of short-term and medium-term loan funds.
Moreover, the package of credit tied with extension assistance
has resulted in increased agricultural production. The clear
guidelines for operation, the performance incentives, and local
autonomy and authority have had positive results in facilitating
access to credit and extension assistance for small farmers, the
majority of the farmers in Egypt.
How has the Project impacted on rural women, an average of
47.6 per cent of whom participate in agricultural activities1
and who own 80 per cent of household enterprises, and 92 per cent
of dairy enterprises alone? Women, for some reason, were not
originally considered as a major target of the Project. It was
expected, apparently, that women would benefit as family members.
The Project Identification Paper, however, did call for periodic
review of the Project, addressing women's issues as part of an
on-going social analysis.
Women did emerge as major participants in the Project. The
income generating activities that were developed happened to be
those in which the women were already primary producers:
livestock and poultry. The Project administrators were prompted
to document the full extent of women's participation in the
Project and to examine ways in which women could more fully
benefit. It was in this context that I was engaged in the summer
of 1983 to make this study. This paper, then, presents an
account and an assessment of the Project's measures to deal with
the traditional constraints on small farm women, not as women but
as farmers, in obtaining farm credit, markets and employment.
I will first describe the socio-economic profile of the
target population sample and the farm women's sample. I then
discuss the Project's work in removing constraints to credit,
market, and employment for women, a concern of this Conference.
4
The format for this second part is taken from Ilsa Schumacher.
Jennefer Sebstad, and Mayra Buvinic's Limits to Productivity:
Improving Women's Access to TechnoloQv and Credit-
SOCIO-ECONOMIC PROFILE OF SMALL FARMER PRODUCTION PROJECT
CLIENTELE: FARM WOMEN
The study for the assessment of the Project' services to
women is based on interviews with 360 farm women, personally
conducted by me and my assistant, Mrs. Salwa Soliman Saleh of the
Ministry of Agriculture of the Government of Egypt(MOA) Extension
Research Institute, in the three governorates of Kalyubia,
Sharkia, and Assiut where the Project operated. The first two
governorates are in the Delta in the North with Kalyubia being
adjacent to Cairo Governorate and Sharkia north of Kalyubia. The
third, Assiut, is located 395 kilometers to the south of Cairo
and is regarded as culturally more traditional than the northern
governorates.
The number of women was divided equally among the three
governorates and among the total of nine Village Banks,
representing a third of the number of banks involved in the
Project. Half of the sample consisted of farm women
participating in the Project, the other half were outside the
Project who may or may not have heard about it. The present
paper therefore focuses on the portion of the sample who were
participating or cooperating women. The randomly selected women
outside the Project serving as a control group were necessarily
characterized as non-cooperating.
5
Who were the women in the Project? The typical Cooperating
Woman is Fatima, about 40 years old and married with five
children. She markets her eggs through a middleman who collects
her eggs from her home, sells her products of cheese and butter
provided by her gamoosa (water buffalo) to her friends and
neighbors after she has taken care of her family needs. She
helps out her husband on their one and one-half feddans Cone
feddan = 1.038 acres], saves money after expenses on food and
education for their children, and expects to use some of the
savings for more income producing projects. The profits will
ultimately be used to help her son marry and set up his legal
office and her daughter to go to the university in the nearest
provincial town. Where did she hear about the Project and the
availability of credit and extension assistance? She happened to
hear of it through relatives and the bank manager himself, a
distant relative. With 200 Egyptian pounds(LE = $0.70 in 1983)
in hand for the chicken cages, Fatima did make the initial trip
to the bank unaccompanied. She had inherited money from her
father and saved more for many months.
In contrast, a neighboring woman who also obtained a loan
from the bank did not make the trip herself. Instead, she marked
the papers to be taken by her son. Fatima possessing a strong
and forthright personality is, for her part, generally pleased
with the services she has received from the bank; although she
was concerned at the beginning because some of her egg laying
hens died soon after delivery. But she found the veterinarian
6
helpful and decided that perhaps she had not been feeding the
hens properly.
She was more careful to follow his instructions after he
checked up on them and reviewed the directions for their care.
Since her husband is away all day in the fields and her children
are of an age where they can help with the housework, she goes to
the bank herself to make the loan payments. These trips give her
a chance to get out of the house and make for a change from the
bread-making routine. She gets to visit with her neighbors and
to find out what's happening in the town when she chats with the
woman bank clerk and on occasion her distant relative, the bank
manager.
SMALL FARMER PRODUCTION PROJECT REACHES THE SMALL FARMER: MALE
AND FEMALE
Women in developing countries have suffered from various
constraints to accessing formal borrowing systems which has
limited their full contribution to economic productivity. In
Limits to Productivity Schumacher, Sebstad, and Buvinic list the
following common problems to women's participation in credit
schemes:
1. Concessionary interest rate and loan rationing
strategies retarding savings and efficiency in
resource allocation.
2. Administrative problems of red tape, high bank
transaction cost in lending to the poor, shortage
of well-trained bank personnel, and slowness in
making loan decisions.
3. Concentration of control over resources by
wealthier farmers,thereby denying the poor access
to formal credit, with the limited amounts
available going most likely to the men who usually
control the purse strings.
4. Limited informational network or publicity
about the credit programs, with whatever
information available chanelled to the men who
attend the meetings while the women t-end the
housework and the animal husbandry tasks.
5. Higher total borrowing costs limiting the
poor's use of formal institutions credit, such as
forced purchase of lender services and service
fees, briberies to or negotiations with local
officials, and travel time required for loan
processing.
6. Collateral requirements in the form of house,
land, or other property held in many countries by
men.
7. Absence of programs responsive to the kinds of
enterprises engaged by women, such as repayment
schedules compatible with women's pattern of
frequent but small payments.
S. Social mores and conditions limiting women's
participation in modern credit programs, such as
8
escalation or absence of women from cooperatives
or at least their meetings, and the high rate of
illiteracy among rural women--even when compared
with their menfolk.3
The Small Farmer Production Project has responded to the first
three major constraints positively, is working on the fourth,
fifth, responded positively to the sixth, seventh, and is making
progress dealing with the eighth constraint.
The SFPP's approach to really reaching the small farmer to
improve his or her income and agricultural productivity is 1)
simplifid but commercially sound banking practices, 2) improved
farm management assistance with 3) the integration of the two
components "under one roof," Credit was extended to farmers on
the basis of sound farming practices only, without collateral in
the form of mortgages required or referral to superiors for
approval. The SFPP offered credit with the commercial interest
rate of ten per cent to farmers who derived their principal
source of income from farming, owning or renting no more than
five feddans, and having "satisfactory financial stability" and a
sound farming plan rather than collateral.* Availability of
credit rather than low interest rates is considered key to credit
program success among small farmers.
The second constraint to women's participation, i.e.,
administrative problems, is addressed by the SFPP's encouraging
greatylocal bank manager authority. The PBDAC had moved in the
direction of decentralizing the banking system to allow for more
autonomy at the local level. The SFPP improved upon the bank
record by rationalizing banking procedures and giving the local
bank manager loan authority. Whereas the approval time for a
loan used to take from six to eight weeks, under the Project the
time has been reduced to two days at the most. As a result,
women were able to apply for loans without travelling long
distances or spending a lot of time away from their other
responsibilities. The women were also assisted by the bank staff
in filling out forms, learning bank regulations, and analyzing
the viability of their loan projects.
The credit and extension services have been integrated
"under one roof" by the formation of five-member Village Bank
teams comprised of the bank manager, the bank accountant, the
financial analyst, the extension agent, and an agricultural
researcher to coordinate the provisions of credit, extension and
research assistance.
Improvement of both banking service and farm management
assistance is an integral part of the Project. Careful screening
of bank personnel and extension agents for the Project, their
encouragement of quality performance by incentives, and their
replacement are important program features. The Project
extension agent is given human relations training as well as
updating on new technology, and close monitoring of the work
performed by the Project staff. Significantly, the five-member
team is selected from the local area with the result that the
members are familiar with their clients and can more readily'
identify their needs.0
Women borrowers and participants via their husbands' loan
activities (caring for the livestock or poultry the men bought
with the loans) therefore frequently know the bank-extension
staff. Consequently, the taboos against communicating with them
become irrelevant.
By the end of 1983, 20,691 loans had been made, totalling
15,233,722 pounds ($18.4 million), the average amount per farmer
in the Project being 736 pounds ($887). Loan repayment has been
prompt and virtually free of default. Women comprised eight per
cent of the borrowers at the time of our 1983 survey, an increase
from about two to three per cent before the Project. At the end
of 1985, this proportion has gone up to 15.2 per cent of 36,865
borrowers, the number of women being fairly evenly distributed
among the three governorates in which the Project was
implemented.'
A majority of the loans were made for poultry for meat
production or broilers (34.9 per cent) and egg production (.5 per
cent) and for livestock: water buffalo for milk (33.3 per cent),
and cattle and sheep breeding (11.3 per cent).
Women's participation in the Project, therefore, became
evident in the implementation of the program by their share of
the loans taken and by the type of loans made. Women in Egypt
under Islamic law do inherit property in their own right, though
not in the same proportion as do men. Thus, contrary to the
practice in some other countries in Africa and elsewhere where
11
only men held title to land and other property, Egyptian women do
not have the legal requirements inhibiting them from having
independent access to the land.
Women took out the loans for projects if they had inherited
the land or had the capital for the down payment, and/or if they
were widows and thus head of their own household. Sometimes,
both the husband and the wife would take out loans for different
projects, so as to spread out the burden.
Many women actually went personally to the bank to process
loans as Table I shows. A smaller number went to the bank in
Assiut, however, since it is the more culturally and socially
traditional of the governorates regarding women's role outside
the home. The more independent Assiuti women who did go to the
bank were widows or educated. Most women who went to the bank
came with their male relatives at first but then went on their
own on subsequent visits. Some women are sent by their husbands
busy in the fields to do the bank business.
Most of the women who did go to the bank for loans expressed
satisfaction with their treatment there, a finding corroborating
the earlier Project evaluation which surveyed a sample of
farmers (though only two of them female) on their perceptions of
the Project. Most (S1 per cent) indicated they had changed their
image of the bank and generally remarked that the loan
applications took much less time, were easier to obtain, and that
bank officials "like us to come now."e
Another constraint to women's access to credit is the
12
concentration of control over resoLurces by the economically
powerful. This was certainly the case in the years before the
agrarian reform, but was merely modified or transferred to the
rural middle class (owners of between ten and fifty feddans)
under Arab Socialism. Under the SFPP it is still true that the
relatively better off small farmer predominates (See Table I), in
terms of income per month, but less so according to land tenure:
A substantial majority of the women(cooperating and non-
cooperating) had family incomes of 100 pounds per month and
above,and comprised 72 per cent of the Cooperating Women. This
phenomenon of benefits accruing to the "better off farmer" within
this five-or-less feddan class is justified by the Project, as
these will be the ones to take risks and yet will spur others to
follow, if they succeed. On the other hand, over a third of the
Cooperating Women were in the less-than-one-feddan category.
In our study we learned that among the Cooperating Women,
information about the Project was transmitted through relatives
and friends. But among the control group of non-Cooperating
Women we found that many had not even heard about the Project,
and a few (personal informal observation) expressed distrust of
the Bank. Yet 61 per cent of the control group expressed
interest in loans for productive purposes once they were informed
by us of the opportunity. One or two extension agents
accompanying us, however, cynically predicted to us that many of
these women would not follow up, as habits of "mattress saving"
were too strong.
13
One constraint to women's involvement we perceived was the
absence of any women extension agents or financial analysts in
the Project. We hypothesized that the cultural norms limiting
women's contacts with men outside the family would confine the
information transmission to male networks and exclude women's
direct receipt of the new technology." As noted above, while
women already participating in the Project were not as hindered
by an all-male extension staff because of family ties and local
residence, we did find that those women outside the Project would
be more receptive to participating if there were women extension
agents who could provide the "understanding" approach women
farmers felt they needed. (See Table II)
We did recommend therefore the recruitment of women
extension agents and financial analysts to facilitate the women's
access to the Bank's credit and extension services. Apparently
this recommendation has been implemented in a limited way with
the engagement of a woman analyst a women extension agent for
training.
Regarding the seventh constraint, the Project's innovative
provision of layered cages, improved feed, pullets, and extension
and veterinary assistance for egg production in a loan package
has promoted, if indirectly, women's enterprise needs. This
business can be operated in the home with a minimum of extra
effort, IS within women's traditional domain of activity,
requires relatively little capital outlay (200 pounds down
payment), respond to available markets through middlewomen or men
14
who purchase the eggs from the home, includes technical
assistance, and provides a nutritious and inexpensive food supply
at the local level.
This Project has been very popular. The major reasons cited
for desiring this project were place availability in Kalyubia and
profitability for women in Sharkiya. More women, particularly
the Cooperating Women, marketed their poultry products in
Sharkiya than did women in Kalyubia (26 per cent as against 14
per cent).
CONCLUSION
The Project has thus addressed major constraints affecting
women's access to credit by bringing the Bank to the village,
removing collateral requirements, making more flexible and
understandable loan terms, improving the quality of extension and
credit staff, and developing projects in areas of women's primary
agricultural responsibility. The participating women have
benefitted economically, have generally saved more than non-
Cooperating Women, and are enthusiastic about the Project. The
number of women borrowers continues to increase.
An indication of the Project's success to date is its
expansion to other governorates by the PBDAC's application of the
SFPP's credit policies to seven other governorates.
1.Figures averaged for 18 activities performed by women in Lower
and Upper Egypt as reported by K.Abou El Seoud and F.Estira in
their Study of the Role of Women and Youth in Rural Development
with an Emphasis on Production and Consumption of N.utr-itive
Elements, F'AO/ME 1977-78.
2.International Center for Research on Women, May, 1980 for USAID
Office of Women and Development.
3.A recent report indicated that 70% of Egyptian
women over. 10 are illiterate. The rural figures
are always higher than the urban figures. "Egypt
Isn't Solving Its Population Problem," The
Washington Post Weekly, January 27, 1986.
4. Evaluation Report Small Farmer Production
Project, AID Grant No. 263-0079, February 28,
1983, p. 91, Annex K. ECairo, Egypt].
5. Personal observation. Also see Evaluation Report, op. cit.,
pp. 54-55.
6,. See Agricultural Cooperative Development International
Annual Report, 1983, p. 13.
7. -Telephone communication with Jerry Lewis, ACDI, Washington,
DC., January 17, 1986.
8. Evaluation Report, Annex A, p. 18.
9.Hassan Dawood, "Integration of Women in Rural Development in
the Near East Region" in Al Raida(August, 1979) pp.3-45.See also
Barbara C. Lewis, Editor, Invisible Farmers: Women and the Crisis
in Agriculture (Washington, D.C.: Agency for International
Development Office of Women and Development, April, 1980 pp. 158-
65.
TABLE I SMALL FARMER PRODUCTION PROJECT REACHES THE SMALL FARM (WOMAN)
Governorate
Status
1
%Labor in
Livst/Poultry
Women's Share
2
%w/land
hold.
< 1 fed.
%Women
w/own
income
%women's %Women
income from w/own inc.
Pltry/Lives. EE100 or
6
% Women
who save
7
%Loans
for
Pltryk/ives.
%Women
who went to
Bank
Kalyubia
Non-Coop. 33 51 36 21 21 28 48
Coo2erat. 56 _Al ------ 5--------3---30 .....--- a---------- --4----4 -- 30--------- 66--------
Total 46 46 36 39 52
Sharkiya
Non-Coop. 45 43 31 4 63 15 18
oo.--------- 55 ---23 -4 .4------. 25.A2----3-------A3-------- --------0-------
Total 50 33 40 27 30
Assiut
Non-Coop. 32 51 46 0 18 9 23
-co. ------ -- 25------55 -1.-------- 40 -------3--- ------8------
Total 39 38 51 13 31
*T
TOTAL N of sample on this question was 42
Non-Cooperating Sample N= 60 per Governorate
**
1.% farmers with landholdings < one feddan:(According
Kalyubia: 45.8 2. 72 % w/ no
Sharkiya 43.7
Assiut
29.1
4. Prior to Project,
(pre-1980)
8b .b
33-
to Baseline Study for Project by El Kholy and Abbas, op. cit.p. 47
off farm income 3. Average income for farmers with-rmnning
as main occupation: EE 33 per mo. in 1980
77.5
qD,0 % dealt with the Village Bank in Kalyubia
8.2 Sharkia
53.3 Assiut
(Tbid., p. 248)
TABLE II VILLAGE BANK RECORD AND IMPACT OF SMALL FARMER PRODUCTION PROJECT
Governorate
Status
1.
Mkt.
Pltry
(eqqs)
%
Prod
Lives.
(dairy)
2.
Desire for
(more) Proj.
3.
Sources of Info
Re Proj. in %
1 2 3 4
4.
% w/ TV
in Home
5.%
Satisf.
W/tech. ass.
EA V
6.
%Gender
Pref:Woman
Kalyubia
Non-oop.
Coop.
8 40
20 45-
52 10 5 0
48 22 22 0
- - ----------------- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -
Total 77 84 33 21
Sharkiya
Non-Coop. 12 41 51 48 12 18 3 60 20 8 41
Coop. 40 30 63 61 20 42 2 78 90 35 37
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total 57 69 57 21
Assiut
Non-Coop. 2 3 58 55 15 8 3 48 20 10 22
Co2. -_10 15 1 _______ 55 65 26 6 1 75 36 35 32
Total
--- 56 61 27 21
Column 3
Relatives/Friends
Village Bank
Extension Agent/Veterinarian
Radio/TV
NOTES:
Prior to Project, 32.3%
38.5
6.3
reported
visiting
reported
1I
vizitsab y Extension agents in Kalyubia
4 or more times ,
visits by Extension agents in Sharkia
Assiut
Total N for Kalyubia on this Question =42
13 5
50 38
KEY:
1.
-2.
3.
4.
`"~ "
|
RSS
HIDE
