ACCESS OF SMALL FARMERS TO FINANCIAL SERVICES
Most small farmers and other rural entrepreneurs, due to their dispersed
location and the general poor rural infrastructure, experience great difficulty in accessing urban-based banks. Rural client dispersion and
small loan volumes lead to high financial transaction costs both for
banks and borrowers, and increase the perception of high risks which
banks usually associate with small rural clients. In addition, current
bank practices and procedures may discourage rural clients from using
formal financial services and, in many cases, rural people are even