Seedlings of Change
Dan Sadowsky, October 18, 2006
Country: Kyrgyzstan
Topics: Microfinance, Agriculture
Photo: Jason Sangster for Mercy Corps
Nearly one million families in Kyrgyzstan tend home gardens. Most of these families grow apples. And many rely on the income they get from the round fruits — which originated in modern-day Kyrgyzstan and its northern neighbor, Kazakhstan — for life's basic necessities.
Mercy Corps and its microfinance institution, Kompanion, are helping household apple farmers in two Kyrgyz villages to grow more and better varieties, and to command top dollar for their harvest.
It's called, simply enough, The Apple Project. It blends financial services like loans with traditional development assistance to increase top-quality apple production and expand profitable sales opportunities. It works by taking aim at the poor horticultural skills and a lack of sophisticated markets which hamper the ability of households to make the most from what they grow.
Each story in this series introduces you to a different grower who benefits from one or more parts of this multifaceted project. The fourth and final segment features a nine-minute video produced by The Apple Project that describes each part of the process. By providing workshops and loans, coordinating marketing efforts, and renovating a cold-storage facility, we're lifting incomes in one of Central Asia's poorest countries.
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On mercycorps.org
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Bukabaev Sabyrbek owned a piece of land along Kyrgyzstan's Lake Issyk-Kul that lay fallow for many years. Mercy Corps gave him the know-how and loaned him the money to make it productive.
Apple Festival Unites Villages of Southern Issyk-Kul
On October 10, 2008, the Association of Orchardists and the Gardens and Plastics (GAP) project held the Third Annual Apple Festival in the village of Kyzyl-Tuu on the southern shore of Lake Issyk-Kul, Kyrgyz Republic
Building Furniture and a Foundation
The sound of saws - and the hope for prosperity - has returned to the heart of Kyrgyzstan's Ferghana Valley.
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