Credit helped stimulate sales of this unfamiliar technology in the project's early stages, but the default rate and administrative costs of the loans were excessive. From 1992 to 1994, approximately 200 ram presses were sold on credit, with nearly half of these borrowers defaulting on their loans. Whenever possible, the project repossessed presses from those borrowers. Although the loans carried a nominal interest rate of 25 percent per year, these interest payments did not cover the costs of loan recovery and of refurbishing repossessed presses for resale. As an alternative, the project might have considered having the loans administered by an established micro-credit organization, or simply phased out the credit component sooner.
Oilseed diversification can boost productivity.
Ram press use rates can be increased by employing them to process other types of oilseeds besides sunflower, such as castor beans. This will be especially true in 1999, as markets for castor oil open up and the planted area devoted to this crop increases. Since castor seedcake is toxic however, all presses used for castor bean pressing must be thoroughly cleaned before being able to safely process edible oilseeds. Replication projects are highly cost-effective. Being a replication of previous oils projects, this project benefited greatly from the prior experience of EnterpriseWorks in Tanzania and Zimbabwe.