The Center for Study and Development of Agriculture is urgently calling on the government and microfinance firms to issue low interest loans for flood-striken farmers in order to save this year’s dry season rice harvest. Flooods have destroyed 10 percent of the rainy season rice crop and left farmers without any capital for the next round of planting, Cedac said in a statement issued.
“Cedac believes that the government in collaboration with microfinance institutions should create a special loan program for rice producers, especially farmers planting rice after the floodwater reced,” the statement said. Receding floods will leave behind an unusually large area suitable for growing dry season rice, it said. The center suggested four-month loans, with monthly interest rates under 1.5 percent, so farmers can replant crops.
Hout Ieng Tong, chief executive officer of Hattha Kakekar Limited, a microfinance institution that charges 2.2 ti 2.3 percent interest on average, said that the program would be possible, but only if Cedac funded it. “It’s no problem if Cedac gives us a grant,” Mr Ieng Tong said, citing Hattha Kaksekar’s own costs and limited funds.
Son Kuon Thor, president of the Rural Development Bank, support Cedac’s ida, But “we cannot force them to charge low interest because they are private microfinance institutions,” Mr Kuon Thor said. “We encourage them to compete with each other.” Many flood-affected farmers working with Cedac in Prey Veng province lack capital for dry season planting beginning in about a month, said Him Khortieth, Cedac communications officer. “At least 50 percent face very big trouble with dry season farming,” he said.
Oum Kros, a fermer in Prevy Veng proince’s Preah Sdetch district, said that he is more than 2 million riel, or $500, in dept after using the money to plant on hectare of rice crops, which were destroyed by floods. “right now, I have a problem with capital to plant dry rice,” he said. “I hesitate over borrowing money from some businesspeople because I have not repaid old debt.” “I support Cedac’s program,” he added. “If there was this program, then I would borrow from it.”
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