Blanca Elisa

Blanca is 45 and a single mother with three children, one of whom is at primary school and the other two are older with their own jobs. She lives together with her children in Carchi province which is in the north of Ecuador and she farms both crops and cattle.

For the past 16 years, Blanca has been farming dairy cattle. Currently she has one dairy cow and five bullocks for fattening. She works together with her son who looks after ands feeds her animals which are for sale and milk production. The milk that is collected is sold to local merchants.

Additionally she cultivates crops and grows mainly potatoes on four hectares of farmland.

For each growing cycle, she prepares the land and digs the furrows for sowing the seeds. Then together with the help of other workers, she spreads the fertiliser on the land so she can have a successful harvest. As a result, Blanca currently manages to harvest 45,000kg of potatoes which she sells at markets in the city.

In order to develop her business, she has requested a loan. With this she plans to buy 15 sacks of fertiliser for £655, twenty packs of agricultural supplies for £1,033 and she will use £262 as the wages for seven hired workers who will be employed during the three cultivation periods. Blanca plans to use the final part of her loan to improve the quality of her grassland by buying seven sacks of fertiliser for grassland costing £362 and she will also use £71.50 for vitamins and vaccines for her cattle.