Women in Marokafo village grow incomes through cocoa farming and a savings club supported by the SIART project in Malaita
Monday 2 March, Honiara – The Alisuri Sustainable Livelihood Association in Marokafo village, an inland community in the northern region of Malaita Province, is helping women in the community save money to support their families.
The association in Marokafo village is one of the forty-five (45) Agribusiness Producer Organizations (ABPOs) in Malaita Province supported by the Solomon Islands Agriculture Rural Transformation (SIART) Project, a partnership between the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock and the World Bank.
By being actively involved in supporting the management and production of cocoa, women in the community have established a Women’s Savings Club which is now a component of their ABPO.
“We started off with each woman giving their contributions to the saving club,” the women told a SIART Team that recently visited their community.
They currently have 32 members comprising of the wives and children of local farmers who are members of the ABPO in Marokafo village.
ABPOs are groups of farmers and agri-entrepreneurs who work together to access markets, financing, and support services.
“Through our support towards our cocoa farms, we have been able to save money to meet our family obligations,” the women said.
When the SIART team conducts training for farmers in the area, the association engages the Women Savings Club to do catering.
“Just recently we supported the association in clearing nurseries for our farmers who are members of the association and they paid us for the labour. This is an example of how women in our community are benefitting,” they said.
Chairman of the Alisuri Sustainable Livelihood Association, Mr Elton Eteka said their ABPO has 29 household farmers and the women are also members.
Each household has 200 to 4000 trees in their cocoa farms. What happen is, the Association pays wet beans from its members and also other farmers from surrounding communities before processing them. SIART also supports the ABPO with processing facilities and a revolving fund to start the purchasing of wet beans.
The association transports the dried beans to buyers in the provincial capital Auki and shares the profit with members or each household farmer.
“When each household harvests, they leave aside money for women to save in their saving club,” Elton said.
“One good thing about the saving club is when the association pays wet beans and is short of cash, our association borrows money from the saving club and repays it with interest which helps in growing the women’s savings,” he added.
The association also gives the opportunity for the women to purchase wet beans from farmers, process the beans and then sell with all earnings going towards the Saving Club.
For individual farmers in Marokafo village, during high crop they can earn up to $6,000 in one harvest.
As for the association, Chairman Elton says after paying wet beans from farmers they can earn up to $50,000 in a fortnightly harvest during high crop.
SIART remains committed in working with our ABPOs in the rural communities to increase agricultural production, and more importantly improving the livelihoods of our people in the rural areas.
SOURCE : SIART Media Release
