Rice inventory credit in Madagascar: diversity of rural household strategies around an hybrid financial and marketing service.

Emmanuelle Bouquet (1) , Betty Wampfler (1) , Eliane Ralison (2)

1 UMR MOISA - Marchés, Organisations, Institutions et Stratégies d'Acteurs
2 FOFIFA - Centre National de Recherche Appliquée au Développement Rural

The Malagasy rural finance network CECAM has been offering an innovative individual rice inventory credit to its members since 1993. Starting from the acknowledgement that the inventory credit is a hybrid product, which involves a mix of in kind and in cash flows and stocks, a mix of credit and savings features, and linkages with the local rice market, the papers sets out to inquire how it is accessed, used, and inserted in the strategies of different wealth categories of Cecam members. The paper is based on an analysis of quantitative and qualitative data that were collected in several phases during a 4 year impact study conducted by the authors from 2003 to 2007. Evidence suggests that the Cecam inventory credit is globally well suited to the differentiated needs of poor as well as nonpoor households, because it lowers the access thresholds, it enhances the value of their rice production (be it for consumption or sale) and it allows them to pursue different kinds of strategies (more food security oriented for the poor, more entrepreneurial and diversification oriented for the non poor).

Mots clés: rural microfinance; inventory credit; rural household strategies; Madagascar

Domaines: Environnement et Société

Emmanuelle Bouquet, Betty Wampfler, Eliane Ralison. Rice inventory credit in Madagascar: diversity of rural household strategies around an hybrid financial and marketing service.. First European Research Conference in Microfinance., Jun 2009, Bruxelles, Belgium. pp.16. ⟨hal-00414955⟩