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How This Chinese Fintech Company Is Innovating by Leasing Cows
While global investors have often honed in on China’s booming urban centers, Chinese financial tech firms are beginning to look at the middle kingdom’s increasingly affluent rural, farming-based consumers.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Finance
- Region
- Asia Pacific
- Tags
- fintech, rural development
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Crowdfarming is being used to bring Somalia’s livestock market into the digital economy
In 2017 alone, livestock loss has ranged from 20%-40% in the southern regions and 40%-60% in the north, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization. This threatens the livelihood of the animal farmers and hinders their ability to regularly trade in markets. But a Sweden-based startup wants to change this by creating a tech-powered livestock market that is open all year round.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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To address hunger effectively, first check the weather, says new study
Too little rain, or too much, is often a driver of poverty and hunger, leading to poor nutrition and food insecurity among vulnerable populations. According to a new study, rainfall patterns also provide clues on how to most effectively alleviate food insecurity.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Environment
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Processed food is a global health crisis
Released at COP23, “Chronic Disease, Changing Diets, & Sustainability: The Globalization of Western-style Eating & Its Implications” sheds light on the intersection of diet, public health, and environmental sustainability, with case studies from China, South Africa, India, Mexico and Brazil.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Health Care
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Four Bottom-up Solutions to Strengthen Land Rights in Emerging Markets
On an estimated 70 percent of land in developing countries, people live without formal recognition of their property rights. Despite significant investment, big improvements in protecting the property rights of most citizens have not materialized. But several civil society and private sector organizations are working to address these gaps and ensure land rights for people most in need - and technology solutions are providing a blueprint. BRAC and Landesa explore four innovative approaches.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Technology
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Making Tech Work: How Local Know-How Can Improve Digital Financial Inclusion Solutions in Challenging Markets
Technology can eliminate inefficiencies, collect valuable information and expand access to critical services. But technological solutions often replace indigenous, ad-hoc approaches which – though they may appear incomplete and messy – reflect the knowledge and relationships of the parties involved. Asa Nyaga at BFA explores how Farmerline, a Ghana-based tech company serving smallholders, aligned the product design of a new app with the ideas and understandings of its target users.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Finance, Technology
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Three Reasons for the African Research Gap – And How to Close It
Sub-Saharan Africa’s population share will more than double in the next 50 years—from 13 percent to 25 percent of the world's population. Despite this growth, its research outputs lag far behind other regions, with just 2 percent of peer-reviewed publications coming from authors there. Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA) program manager Maya Ranganath explores reasons for the gap, and ways CEGA is working to increase the volume of high-quality academic research produced by scholars in the region.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Education, Health Care
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Shell and FMO to finance impact projects in Africa and India
The parties have signed a memorandum of understanding, agreeing to co-fund and co-create project opportunities in the energy access and clean energy sectors in the two regions, including investment in financial institutions with specific goals to increase access to finance, reduce inequality and promote green financing and agribusiness.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy, Investing
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