Small farms produce most of the food in Africa. But they need to become more productive to keep up with a growing population.
ECLOF Kenya, partner of the Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation since 2015, is a microfinance institution providing financial and related non-financial services to micro, small and medium entrepreneurs in Kenya as they run their income generating activities.
Within its activities aimed at improving its clients’ life quality, ECLOF runs an innovative agricultural value-chain financing model to enhance the capabilities of smallholder farmers and their cooperatives and plants. Through financial and technical training, loans and linkages with local dairy plants as secure buyers, farmers earn a stable income and invest in higher-yielding cows and better upkeep. On average, participating farmers triple their annual revenue from milk production.
At the same time, this innovative structure reduces ECLOF’s cost and risk of serving farmers: the repayment rate is well over 90%. By December 2021, ECLOF Kenya had disbursed dairy loans worth more than 3 million USD to over 2200 farmers.
The new film on Kenya dairy lets farmers themselves speak up to tell the story.