Providing loans to agriculture

In thirty-three years of operations in Latin America and the Caribbean, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has made 586 loans for US$10,900 million finance agricultural and fisheries projects costing a total of $25,400 million. Some of the largest agricultural loans in 1993 include $48 million for agricultural development in the Dominican Republic, and $7.25 million and US$8.75 million to strengthen agricultural services in Nicaragua.

The UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) Investment Centre helps countries to identify and formulate investment projects and directs capital to agricultural development. By 1992, some 873 FAO assisted investment projects had been approved for a total of US$45,000 million. More than half of this sum was provided in the form of loans from financial institutions such as the World Bank, with the balance made up by recipient countries.

1. Providing loans

1. Funding small scale farming

1. Reducing uncertainty of development programmes due to short-term loans
2. Developing agriculture

1. Providing agricultural aid to developing countries
2. Freeing up availability of loans

1. Unpaid debts
2. Unethical financial practices
3. Uncertainty of development programmes due to short-term loans
4. Reverse flow of financial aid
5. Restrictive conditions on loans through intergovernmental facilities
6. Racial discrimination in according financial loans
7. Over-dependency on international financial institutions
8. Limited availability of loans
9. Insufficient programme funding
10. Inadequate diversification of loans to vulnerable countries
11. Fraudulent loans
12. Excessive anxiety on overseas lending
13. Domination of restrictive project loans by transnational banks
14. Discrimination against women in banking
15. Deteriorating terms of international financial loans to vulnerable countries
16. Defaults on international loans
17. Bank fraud
18. Bad loans