Bui thi

Mrs. Bui Thi Bien is 47 years old, she married with two children (one son and one daughter) they are 13 and 17 years old. She lives with her family in a small village located in Hoa Binh province – Northern Viet Nam. Her husband (Bui Van Van) has a stable job at a local company and has a stable monthly income to provide for the family.

Mrs. Bui Thi Bien received her first loan from MACDI and invested the loan money in her sugarcane crop and bought a new plot of land that was around 1000 square meters for expanding her sugarcane farming. She still continues to farm sugarcanes and harvests around 500 kg of sugarcane during the harvesting season. Her total sugarcane farmland is 2000 square meters. She plants fruit trees on her 3600 square meters of land growing jackfruits. The jackfruits are seasonal, the fruits are sold to local traders for around $3 (around £2.37) a kilo. Mrs. Bui thinks that having jackfruit plantation is a secured cash crop compared to rice paddy crops.

Apart from growing sugarcane and jackfruit trees, she also raises 60 chickens. Some of the chicken are raised for laying eggs and some chicken are sold in the local market for profit.

Mrs Bui Thi Bien is now requesting her second loan to develop her jackfruit plantation. She will use the loan money to buy fertilisers and other farming products. She will pay back the loan in 12 installments. Her plan for the future is diversify her farming by raising cows or buffaloes depending on the cost and her saving.