Paso Real, a village of about 60 families with a total of just over 500 people, in the municipality of San Antonio de Flores, 72 kilometers from Tegucigalpa, is an area of constant drought.
Paso Real is part of Manorcho, conformed by its municipality and three others, Pespire, San Isidro and San José, that comprise a population of more than 53,000 inhabitants of the north of the department of Choluteca, in an area where the population survives of the agriculture And subsistence farming.
Here, a group of family farmers of just over 100 opted for a new financing model that the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) decided to experiment with.
The initiative is known as Financial Development Centers (CFDs) and is currently applied only in two depressed regions of Honduras: in Lempira, in the west of the country, and in the Commonwealth of Municipalities of North Choluteca (Manorcho), to the south .
Rafael Nunez, is one of the leaders of Ideal Group, an associative production company, is happy with what they have achieved. Although his family already owned some land, they could not exploit them since no one gave them credit.
Núñez commented that because banks did not lend them, they had to use credit cards or plastic money at 84 percent interest rates a year, which drowned them, while now the loans they get in the CFD are accessible And at an annual interest rate of 15 percent.
The ideal group is clearly familiar and each of the brothers, 11 in total, divide the work and offer direct work to at least 40 people in the area and indirectly to just over 75. They are convinced that their effort Can be imitated by other small farmers.
Marvin Moreno, the FAO specialist who spearheads these two experimental financial centers, said that with this model, small families have now been allowed to organize to access opportunities that allow them to escape poverty.
The model has two characteristics: solidarity and inclusion. It is solidary because if someone obtains a credit, all become guarantees to guarantee the payment of the loan, and it is inclusive because it does not discriminate.
The two CFDs installed by FAO in Honduras have managed to mobilize close to $ 300,000 through a public-private partnership between the community, local organizations and local governments.
This has allowed more than 800 small producers to access credits that currently range from 150 to 3,000 dollars, with amortization periods of between 12 and 36 months.
In the case of Manorcho, César Núñez, mayor of San Antonio de Flores, said that “people are beginning to believe that the financial center is a real option for change and here we all aim to get ahead these poor municipalities, hit by the Nature but with potential to get ahead “.