Food Production And Rural Development In The Sahel by R. James Bingen

Author:R. James Bingen [Bingen, R. James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780367169886
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2022-06-30T00:00:00+00:00

Agricultural Equipment, Credit, and Services

As an intermediary between other State agricultural agencies, the Operation purchases rice seed from the Office du Niger, from contract seed producers, and from a State rice seed multiplication farm financed and managed by the FAO/UNDP Regular supplies of replacement seed are distributed without charge to smallholders if their fields are plowed and if they promise to adhere to recommended planting dates.12 Smallholders receive all the seed needed, while traders and others are limited to MO kilograms per landholder, or enough to plant approximately 4 hectares.

Agricultural implements are purchased from SCAER, the national agricultural equipment agency, which delivers the equipment while the Operation manages its distribution, sets the credit terms, and retains 5 percent from all implement sales to cover administrative costs. Equipment and supply orders must be placed 10 to It months prior to delivery in order to coordinate the material import orders with the assembly schedule at SMECMA, the Malian agricultural equipment assembly plant. Loans are not available for plow oxen. Any producer who has received a plot of land from ORS and who is not in default to ORS for land fees or other payments can purchase equipment on credit. Requests are filled in person at the Casier office upon presentation of the family tax card and a signed agreement to repay the loan and maintain the equipment.

Because implement costs have escalated and drought has periodically plagued the Upper Middle Valley, the ORS has relaxed its credit terms several times since the early 1970s. In 1972, the ORS required two installments (one at purchase, the second at harvest in the following year) at 4.5 percent interest. Since then, the repayment rate on all outstanding loans has averaged 70 percent per year. In 1974-1975, following two disastrous crop years, the terms were further eased to require a 20 percent downpayment with two annual payments at 4.5 percent interest. As equipment prices skyrocketed by 35 percent in 1975-1976, and by another 46 percent in 1976-1977, the interest rate was lowered again to 3 percent per year.

The ORS Livestock Service (Action Betail) through its on-farm livestock management activities carries out several health and feeding activities to encourage dry season care and stall feeding of work animals. Smallholders pay a nominal fee for annual vaccinations and parasite treatments, and they can purchase cotton seed made available from CMDT, the State cotton agency. Action Betail also sells salt licks and other feed supplements.13

Finally, OP AM, the State grain marketing agency, uses ORS as its rice purchasing agent. Each producer is required to sell (or pay in cash) 140 kilograms of paddy per hectare to cover land fees and 120 kilograms per hectare as a threshing fee, plus a minimum marketing quota of 400 kilograms of paddy per hectare. ORS Encadreurs or Moniteurs control the collection of these fees and quotas as the small machine threshers pass from field to field. Adjustments to these requirements are commonly made, and village-level agents frequently negotiate compensation for crop losses incurred from water supply problems and predators.

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