Sao

Loan description:

Sao Ong is 52 years old and married to Ms. Seng, who is shown in the photograph. Sao and Seng have five children, who are aged between 27 and 13. Only their two younger children are still at school. They live in the Sangke district of Battambang province and cultivate five hectares of rice paddy on which they produce both wet and dry season rice. They produce around two and a half tonnes of rice per hectare. In addition to rice farming, they also have another piece of land on which they plant vegetables, including cucumbers and long yard beans. They can make a profit of around $25 a day doing this since most buyers buy directly from their home. During the rainy season they also catch fish from the nearby flooded forest and sell this. They can earn around $15 a day selling this fish. Ten years ago they bought a tractor to help with operations on their farm and now their tractor has broken they have decided to take out an eighteen month loan in order to purchase a new one. The profits they generate from their farming they generally use to prepare their land for the next farming season, which includes buying fertilizer, insecticide as well as preparing the land to hold enough water.