SOIL Report 2008 - ACCESS Development Services

Chapter VIas to appoint accountants. If this comes through, then with the lobbying from below from SAGs andthe pressures from the CMRCs, it is hoped that several infrastructure projects can be implemented andabove all maintained which will help to support the livelihoods of the poor.Development of software to analyse loans: SHGs have come under criticism from some quartersrecently for lending only for ‘consumption’. Myrada’s analysis shows that this is incorrect. There are trendsin lending over a period of 0-5 years - from small consumption loans to trading and retiring high interestloans, to small assets, and finally to larger ones. From loans for traditional activities to loans for activitieswhich require added value and/or scale. The new software NAB-YUKTI 19 developed by Myrada andconsultants with the support of NABARD helps to analyse the purposes of loans given in the SHGs.Myrada is willing to provide, on request, considerable data on the loans for livelihoods given by SHGs.ChallengesOne problemMyrada facesis that as thegroup membersbegin to producesmall marketablesurpluses,they are notin one villagebut spread overa wide area.Besides, theirsurpluses arenot adequateto maintainthe structurerequired for aviable producercooperative.One problem Myrada faces is that as the group members begin to produce small marketable surpluses,they are not in one village but spread over a wide area. Besides, their surpluses are not adequate tomaintain the structure required for a viable producer cooperative. They need to be supported for a fewyears at least until they attain scale. Myrada finds that CMRCs which emerged in its projects over the pastfour years have begun to promote groups of small producers, provide training to upgrade the quality oftheir products and to cut costs in production. They also provide them with marketing outlets. They arenot registered groups as yet, since their turnover is too small to sustain the infrastructure required by aformal institution. The question then arises: at what stage should these groups become formal producercompanies? Is it appropriate to start with these producer companies even though their scale of operationsis too small? And if these groups are promoted, what is the support they require, from whom andfor how long? These issues need to be addressed in the near future.19SHG monitoring software developed by Myrada and available with NABARD.148