Russia – Mobilizing Agricultural Credit Program (MAC)

The Mobilizing Agricultural Credit (MAC) Program was funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development to support enhanced access to financial resources for private farmers in Russia. Partnering with the Rural Credit Cooperation Development Foundation (RCCDF), ACDI/VOCA established a self-sustaining loan fund for financing agricultural credit cooperatives and created a network of member-owned and managed financial institutions. ACDI/VOCA also worked to improve the legal and regulatory environment for rural credit cooperatives.

ACDI/VOCA oversaw the use of funds, promoted sound lending policies and procedures and provided training and technical assistance to the nascent rural credit cooperatives and RCCDF. In six years, the central loan fund grew from $6 million (starting capital) to $8 million and it is now operationally sustainable. Additionally, there are now more than 47 accredited rural credit cooperatives in Russia representing more than 13,500 members borrowing under the program. There are 105 additional unaccredited cooperatives that are also participating in the program.

ACDI/VOCA and RCCDF’s efforts to promote a favorable legislative environment for rural credit cooperatives were successful as well, leading to the passage of the first reading of the Law on Credit Cooperation and amendments to the Law on Agricultural Cooperatives. The result has been a 12-fold increase in the number of rural credit cooperatives since 1998.

The program has been deemed a great success, but perhaps its greatest accomplishment is that it demonstrated that lending to Russian private farmers and rural entrepreneurs can be profitable, and that farmers can borrow and repay loans at market interest rates. The work begun under the MAC Program continues under an effort called the Cooperative Development Program.