ACCESS TO MOBILE PHONES AND USE OF DIGITAL FINANCIAL TOOLS | 77 €n the hard winter months, the £hattis spent more igure Ÿ¡)­ ˆbdul had a line of credit open with „ust than they earned by relying on store credit at seven dif- one arthi, and he lied some aspects of borrowing ferent shops, including a butchery, a vegetable store, from him­ “™henever € need fertili—er, ¬the arthi® clothing shops, and a irana shop, which sells small gives it to me ­ ­ ­ even if my arthi has a shortage when goods such as soap­ €n Žanuary, the household experi- € need fertili—er, he’ll get it from someone else and enced a particularly difficult period, and they could bring it to me­ ˆfter the harvest comes, € pay bac­ He not even purchase shoes, despite the harsh winter doesn’t demand money from me every day that’s why weather­ Œheir crops ran out, as did their savings, and he is the best for me­” Œhat said, ˆbdul had to repay ˆbdul and ªania’s purchases on credit peaed in Žanu- the arthi with ‘… percent interest on the amount bor- ary­ €n –ay, after they harvested the wheat, they paid rowed after six months, a rate common across the much of this debt bac­ ™ithout access to these many Smallholder ‰iaries sample in aistan, which he felt lines of credit, the £hattis would have experienced was too high­ “ˆfter six months when € need to repay even more hardships during the year­ him, € have to pay a lot of interest­ €f the government Œhe £hattis borrowed money to purchase inputs for could give us fertili—er without interest, that would be their rice from the arthi from Žuly to September (see best for us­ ¦ur ¬future® income would be saved­” FIGURE 38: Credit amount and frequency of instrument use: The Bhattis (PAKISTAN) JULY 2014–MAY 2015 (US$) $140 $120 $100 $80 $60 $40 $20 $0 JulAug SepOct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Agent credit Borrowing from friends and family Informal store credit