Microfinance for Marginal and Small Farmers Project

The goal of this six-year project is to improve the livelihoods of poor, small and marginal farmer households. The project is expected to:

• establish viable microfinance institutions to provide opportunities for 210,000 small and marginal farmer households to invest in on- and off-farm enterprises
• increase agricultural production through access to information, adoption of new technologies and linkages to markets
• develop and mainstream Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation (PKSF) operational procedures for lending to farmers and related agro-enterprises

The project area includes 14 districts in the north-western and north-central regions of Bangladesh , selected because they have high levels of poverty and good agricultural potential. The total population of these districts is 28 million, and some 1.7 million will be reached by the project. The project focuses in particular on households that experience a food shortage (less than three meals a day) for more than two months a year, and on especially disadvantaged households (tribal households, those headed by women and those with unemployed youth).

Source: IFAD