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DOCUMENT RESUME
04302 - [B3474705]
Credit Programs for Small Farmers in Latin America Can Be
improved. ID-77-1; B-159652. December 9, 1977. 33 pp. + 4
appendices (12 pp.).
Report to the Congress; by Elmer B. Staats, Comptroller General.
Issue Area: International Economic and Military Programs: U.S.
Development Assiatance Overseas (603); Food: Agriculture
Productivity and Resource Availability (1702);Food:
Alleviating Famine and Malnutrition Abroad (170f).
Contact: Itternational Div.
Budget Function: International Affairs: Foreign Economic and
Financial Assistance (151); Agriculture: Farm Income
Stabilization (351).
Organization Concerned: Agency for International Deve. opment.
Congressional Relevance: House Committee on International
Relations; Senate Committee on Foreign Relations; ongress.
Authority: Foreign Assistance Act cf 1S73.
Providing credit to small farmers is one way tl.e Agency
for International Development (AID) has implemented the
congressional mandate to improve the lives of the poorest people
in developing nations. AID has been successful in providing
credit to small far2ers in Latin America, but more can be done
by better identifying small farmer target groups and by
developing consistent and more appropriate criteria tor
qualifying small farmer recipients of credit assistance.
Findings/Conclusions: The United 6tates has pzcviaed about .154
million of credit assistance yearly to rural credit programs,
about two-thirds of which has gone to Latin Ameriza. The
objective is to increase the food Froduction ard income of saall
farmers by providing credit to operators of small farms who a.-e
considered too high a risk to receive credit from the
traditional banking systems. Interest rates charged to farmers
on AID-funded loans were generally lower than those of local
financial institutions. Economic, social, and other conditions
vary sc widely from country to country that adopting rigid
guidelines for identifying farmer target groups is not
practical; thus, some degree of flexibility is needed. However,
broadly defined target groups and criteria for direct credit aid
to farmers should be refined so that AID can better meet its
objective of getting credit aid down to more small farmers aLd
to be more responsive to the overall objective of aiding the
poorest majorities. Recommendations: The Administrator of the
Agency for International Development should follow up on recent
AID initiatives to delineate %ore clearly small farmer target
groups and to see that the deJ-inition of target groups in future
small farmer credit programs is consistent with the Agency's
overall policy and poverty benchmarks. (Autl.or/SCq](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.gao/gaobaawii0001&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)