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Viewpoint: Why agricultural businesses are engines of sustainable growth
Agricultural businesses are uniquely situated to advance progress across multiple SDGs, from zero hunger to gender equality. And they are in dire need of investment.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Investing
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Digitizing the Base of the Pyramid: The Impact of Bringing Digital Finance to Last-Mile Farmers
Only 5 percent of Rwanda’s dairy farmers have access to credit, due in part to their lack of proof of income and inability to build a financial history. That’s why N-Frnds, a cloud-based software platform, partnered with the Rwandan government to digitize the milk collection process. Alyssa Mesich of N-Frnds recounts how the partnership has impacted milk production and boosted financial inclusion – results that suggest the vast potential impact of digitizing value chain-based financial services for last-mile farmers globally.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Inclusive Fintech, Technology
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Press release: Cold chain technology proving a cool choice for impact investors
AgTech and ‘first mile’ distribution innovator InspiraFarms has just announced the successful closing of €2.5 million Series-A 2 equity investment. The latest round of investment will enable the B-Corp to expand its operations, offering solar-powered cold storage technology and asset financing to a broader base of perishable food producers and distributers across the developing world.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Investing, Technology
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Press release: Government of India and the World Bank Sign a New Project to Benefit Over 25 Million Small and Marginal Farmers in Maharashtra
The project is expected to benefit over 7 million people spread over an area of 3.0 million ha and cover 5,142 villages across 15 most climate vulnerable districts of the region.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Environment
- Region
- South Asia
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Hershey to Spend $500 Million Making More Sustainable Kisses
Through its so-called Cocoa for Good program, the company will invest the funds through 2030 to support four key areas: nourishing children, empowering youth, building prosperous communities and preserving natural ecosystems.
- Categories
- Agriculture
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This Agricultural Guide On A Phone Helps Increase Developing-World Farmers’ Yields
“A lot of smallholder farmers are very poor and they wait until it’s too late because they don’t want to spend the money,” says Leesa Shrader, who leads work on DigiFarm for Mercy Corps, one of several groups developing the platform. “The cow dies and they’ve lost an $800 asset, which can be devastating to the families. With DigiFarm, they can pull the training when they want it.”
- Categories
- Agriculture, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Coffee conquers conflict for business-savvy farmers in the Philippines
Beyond helping coffee growers get a better deal, CfP aims to encourage dialogue between communities, with tensions ranging from colonial-era conflict between native Muslims and Christian settlers to land and resource disputes between ethnic groups.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Serving Smallholder Farmers in the Digital Age: Why it Requires Treating Data Like an Asset
As mobile technology becomes nearly ubiquitous, the next wave of users is expected to come from rural regions, where smallholder farmers produce the majority of the food yet often live in poverty. In these areas, data-driven agriculture is already creating a new economy – one in which data itself is the currency that can help lift farmers out of poverty. Bobbi Gray and Ellen Galdava discuss an upcoming Grameen Foundation paper, supported by USAID and FHI 360, on this quickly shifting dynamic.
- Categories
- Agriculture
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