With about 1.000 banana trees on his plantation, Gonzalve has a medium size plantation. He now wants to enlarge the plantation by 30%. He applied for a loan of € 450,- and would like to buy 300 new trees.
The credit has been requested in October 2017 and Gonzalve has a monthly income of about RWF 35.000.
Update April 2018
When we arrive on his plantation we are surprised! In his request for a loan it states that he earns € 35,- per month. He now tells us that his monthly earnings are € 200,- to € 300,-. Gonzalve grows cassava, beans, avocado, orange, mango, bananas and coffee. His plantations looks really neat, it looks also like it will be a good harvest. The size of his land is about 5 hectare. In the meantime we have learned to take the numbers with a grain of salt and estimations are not always correct.
Good and bad harvest
It has rained a lot. This is also evident from the fact that we can not reach some of the plantations. For the coffee harvest the rain has been very good. De harvest is huge. For the green beans the rain is very bad. The orange harvest is estimated 50% higher than last year. The weather has an effect on all the various crops. This already proves that diversification is a good thing. The government and CFF Ineza are trying to motivate farmers to work on different crops to spread the risks.
Kids to the university
Gonzalve slowly expanded his farm. Because of the increase of his income he has been able to send his kids to university.
