The farmers make their repayments to us in planned and manageable amounts. In most cases we do not take cash from our farmers directly, we work with them to market the produce and take a small share each time.
For example, a farmer who has received a hive from us would bring the honey to our marketing co-operative. From the honey brought to us we would take the income from an agreed amount of honey and the remaining income would be given to the farmer in cash.
We only take our share of the income from production over and above a certain amount. This means that if the yields are very poor then we do not take income from the farmers, as this would leave them with nothing. So we take a percentage of the income depending on how high the yield is.
This ensures we do a good job, and work as hard as possible to help the farmers achieve good yields.
It also means that the more successful the farmer is, the quicker they can pay the investment off and take all of the income themselves.
If the farmer pays us back successfully they will have the opportunity to expand the project with more of our resources. So for example, a farmer who successfully repays one bee hive, can recieve another one. This enables them to grow their businesses. The better they do, the more they get from us and the faster they grow.
If a farmer fails to repay us due to unforeseen circumstances, such as natural causes (extreme weather!) then we will continue to work with the farmer. This is all part of farming, sometimes it goes well and sometimes it doesn’t. We have to take the rough with the smooth!
If a farmer does not repay us out of choice and does not follow the agreement then that farmer will not receive any further input or assistance from us. The group that the farmer is from may also suffer as a consequence of that farmer failing to keep to the agreement. this encourages farmers to work together and monitor each other within the groups.
