2SCALE Thematic Papers Not By Technology and Money Alone | Page 17

5. New wings for
vegetable growers
in Benin: Raising
€1 million of credit
By Eric Lakoussan,
partnership
facilitator, Benin
Key themes: PO & Cluster development, Youth and Gender, Functional capacities
Vegetables-Benin
PPP
The partnership
focuses on creating
the conditions for
increased profitability
and connecting vegetable
producers and their
organisations with
wholesale traders to
serve the growing urban
markets in Benin, Togo
and Nigeria.
Summary
This story relates how strengthening business linkages at
the cluster level constitutes an alternative to “hard”
guarantees for young female vegetable growers to
get credit. Focusing on two farmers, Bernadette and
Danielle, the author further describes how strengthening
organisational skills and business relationships led to
farmers being able to repay their loans on time. This in turn
built the confidence of the credit service to further expand
their credit scheme, giving farmers more options.
I don’t remember exactly where I read this, but I fully agree
with the statement: “It is not science that brought men to
the moon, but motivation, our largest source of energy”.
But where does this motivation come from? How can we
keep the battery fully charged? Each of us has its own strat-
egies, but for me one strategy lies in asking the question:
“What makes me feel proud?” For example, something my
daughter might proudly relate about me in a story to my
grandchildren. This could be one such tale.
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We tried and tried but to no avail
In June 2012, I was entrusted by the 2SCALE programme
with the facilitation of a vegetables partnership in Benin.
This sector, which mobilises thousands of smallholder pro-
ducers in my country, offers many opportunities due to the
increasing demand for vegetables in the urban markets. Yet
“potential markets” does not equate to “absence of obsta-
cles”. I do remember, that during one of my first workshops
with the actors – I had just finished explaining in my lo-