Make A Loan - Get A Matching Donation !

[Guest]

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[charity]

Sherri:  I loaned today to Mayra Rivas (http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=47286&_tpos=20&_tpg=1), the female Ecuadorian Rice Farmer Colette alluded to earlier. 
She is my first loan to Ecuador too!

Thank you again for your agricultural loan donation program.  I think it was definitely a good idea to highlight the current importance of agriculture loans.   

Charity

[Sherri]

Excellent! Thanks Colette! I was just teasing you! 

Thanks Charity! That makes 8!

[cpbailey]

Here is an agriculture loan that I love.  It is in Peru for asparagus!  Not many loans for asparagus, and I love asparagus.  It is for four months, so a shorter loan period which many favor.

http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=45129&_tpos=1&_tpg=1

Wheat anyone?  A man with 8 kids in Tajikistan is growing wheat and flax and some other products not mentioned.  A four star organization and a ten month loan.

http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=41275&_tpos=18&_tpg=2

Colette

[Canadian Here]

Sherri:

How's the foundation doing? Do you still have matching funds remaining in the piggy bank?

Thanks!

Lorna

[Sherri]

Hi Lorna,

Yes, I am looking for 7 more loans to agricultural (plant) food farmers. I will make a $4 donation to Kiva's operating expenses for each one. I have 8 takers so far out of 15.

So, if you would like to grab this match- please post a link to the loan and indicate which lender you are. New loans you've just made only please!

(Just wanted to recap for anyone coming into this thread). Please see the full explanation on the first post in this thread. Thanks everyone for being involved in my little effort!

People may also notice that Colette has been helpfully posting links to potential loans that would meet this criteria, to make your lending even easier!

~Sherri

[Canadian Here]

Thanks, Sherri.

Personally, I haven't made any new loans that qualify but I was wondering what the situation was concerning the availability of funds for those considering it. Thanks for the update!

Lorna

[cpbailey]

Here is a potato farmer in Tajikistan, female for those who prefer loaning to women.  Eight months is a reasonably short loan in agriculture!

http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=40995&_tpos=14&_tpg=1

I am finding some complexities on deciding what Sherri will consider.  For example, a man had a rice machine that processed rice.  It needed repair.  This indirectly supports local rice crops, but Sherri would need to make that call.  Another man in Tajikistan wanted to plant potatoes, onions, and rice.  However, he was also buying cattle with the loan.  Some group loans have one specifically mentioned borrower growing food crops, but others are in animal products which Sherri might find objectionable.  Taking out the nebulous situations, that left one option...

Colette

[Sherri]

As long as the borrower GROWS food crops, it's ok if the loan is for something that supports his/her farm. Like equipment.

[cpbailey]

OK...no promises on this one.  He is getting a loan to buy fertilizer for his potatoes, rice and onions.  He is also getting a cow, so it is a split loan.  Tajikistan is his country.

http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=41971&_tpos=16&_tpg=1

This one is very nebulous--crop, fields are mentioned but nothing about what is grown!!!  Food, fodder, drugs?  Sherri will need to make the call on this one.

http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=47712&_tpos=20&_tpg=1

A group loan in Samoa where at least one person has a taro farm.  Others sell mutton flaps.  So this one is mixed!  I think it works, but ask Sherri if it is a deciding point.

http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=47936&_tpos=8&_tpg=2

Not really sure on this.  The loan is to repair his rice processing machine.  He is a subsistance farmer, so he MIGHT use the machine himself.  Sherri's call.

http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=47812&_tpos=1&_tpg=3



Colette

[dh]

Mutton flaps???

According to Professor Philip James, who chairs the International Obesity TaskForce http://www.ap-foodtechnology.com/news/ng.asp?id=70318-obesity-taskforce-world-trade-organization-obesity-farming-diabetes ,

However small countries are being forced to accept the import of some unhealthy products for fear of losing trade privileges, argued Professor James.

He cited the example of the Pacific Islands, which had tried to block the import of mutton flaps, a particularly high-fat cut from sheep that is normally discarded, on health grounds.

Studies on the diets of Pacific islanders, where diabetes affects more than 40 per cent of the population in some areas, suggest that mutton flaps are directly related to the rise in obesity but the meat is cheap and the islands are under pressure to conform to free trade practices.

"It is alarming that Australia is now exporting the same mutton flaps to China, a country which is trying desperately to combat a rising level of overweight and obesity in both adults and children," said Professor James.