Farming News - FAO: Savings, loans and resilience: it takes a village
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FAO: Savings, loans and resilience: it takes a village
Training and village savings and loan associations in Côte d'Ivoire keep women farming sustainably amidst the climate crisis
Victorine Akoua's parents used to read the sky: watch the clouds, track the seasons, know when to plant. She farms the same land they did, but she says those patterns she grew up with no longer hold true. The seasons have changed. The rains have changed. Farming has changed.
What hasn't changed, though, is the cost of borrowing money to address these issues. In Aniassué, in eastern Côte d'Ivoire, an ordinary loan could double what she owed.
"If you borrowed 10 francs, you had to pay back 20," Victorine recalls.
Women farmers in Côte d'Ivoire commonly face these dual problems of climate extremes and credit. They have little access to affordable loans, and even when they get one, extreme weather and changing rainfall patterns can put an investment, and an entire harvest, at risk.
The answer to the multiple challenges of climate change, food security and economic vulnerability came from tapping into their own networks and resources in the form of village savings and loan associations (VSLAs).
The Food Security and Agriculture: Accelerating Adaptation (SAGA 2) project of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), implemented with technical and financial support from the Government of Québec, promotes biodiversity-friendly practices that integrate traditional knowledge, emphasizing the vital role of women and rural youth in addressing and adapting to climate change.
In the Indénié-Djuablin region of Cote d'Ivoire, FAO partners with Carrefour International and Génération Femme du 3ème Millénaire (Generation of Women of the Third Millennium) to strengthen existing VSLAs, so they can play a greater role in financing women-led climate adaptation solutions.
Village savings group members save together and can borrow from a common fund on terms agreed by the group.
"If we borrow among ourselves and the interest comes back to us, that is a good thing," Victorine says.
Today, she is the secretary of one VSLA and the president of a federation bringing together several groups in Aniassué and surrounding villages. Victorine has also used the system herself, borrowing 100 000 CFA francs to grow okra, tomatoes and peppers without chemical inputs, an important step towards making her farm more sustainable as well as resilient.
Local demand for sustainably grown produce allowed her to sell her vegetables at higher prices than conventionally grown vegetables. After repaying the loan, Victorine made double the loan amount, while also keeping part of the harvest for her family.
Access to finance is only part of the equation. Women also need knowledge and practical options to keep producing as climate conditions change, including diversifying production which can help reduce reliance on a single crop or source of income when climate conditions become difficult.
Project-supported financing and training on sustainable farming has also enabled women to invest collectively in other types of activities such as market gardening and raising poultry.
Sonia France Boa, and other women from the Aniassué VSLA, used a loan to develop a shared field. When they sell their produce, part of the income covers the costs of the field, while another part goes back into their savings and supports the group's future activities.
For Sonia, the group also means something else. Working together, she doesn't face farming's challenges alone.
"When we sell, we divide it into three: one part for the expenses of the field, one part to save in the VSLA fund, and one part for the group," she explains.
"The VSLA has helped us a lot because the interest rates are not high. The group sets its own rates," Sonia adds.
For Sonia and the women she works with, the support has also been practical. They learned to produce compost and plant-based treatments for their crops. Sonia proudly remembers the results they saw on their tomatoes after putting these sustainable practices into use.
For Victorine, training in resilient agriculture has changed how she works.
"Before the training, I was farming without knowing techniques to save water. Thanks to mulching and compost, my vegetables are doing better. I sell more at the market, and we also eat some at home," she says. "My produce tastes different too, and it is very good."
That combination of finance and training shows up at home for Victorine, too. When she brings sustainably produced vegetables home, her family does not need to buy them at the market. The money saved can go towards other schooling, health and household expenses. "We women want to be autonomous," she says.
Other households benefit too. What women produce feeds their families and supports the wider community.
"We produce to feed the family, our sisters, our children," Sonia says.
What begins as savings in a common fund grows into investment in the community and greater capacity for women to build resilience and shape their own adaptation to the climate crisis.
This story is part of a series celebrating women farmers worldwide, from producers, fishers, and pastoralists to traders, agricultural scientists, and rural entrepreneurs. The International Year of the Woman Farmer 2026 recognizes their essential contributions to food security, economic prosperity, and improved nutrition and livelihoods, despite heavier workloads, precarious working conditions, and unequal access to resources. It calls for collective action and investment to empower women, in all their diversity, and to build a fairer, more inclusive, and sustainable agrifood system for all.
The story and photos can be found here: https://www.fao.org/newsroom/story/savings--loans-and-resilience--it-takes-a-village/en