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What’s Holding Agricultural Finance Back?: The MIX describes what’s needed to help this crucial sector grow
One of the most effective ways to reduce poverty is to increase agricultural productivity. But for many farmers, access to yield-increasing technologies and inputs requires access to financial products specially tailored to their needs, which are scarce in rural areas. Xavier Martin Palomas of the MIX discusses this challenge and how financial service providers and policymakers can address it.
- Categories
- Agriculture
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Entrepreneurs Wanted : At next week’s SEEP Conference, exploring ‘push and pull’ approaches to Ag growth
Designing and sequencing push and pull approaches in the agriculture sector is challenging. While every context demands unique tactics and models, our experience suggests that local entrepreneurs play a central role in most cases, writes Sally Walkerman of the Aga Khan Foundation who is leading a discussion on the subject at the SEEP Annual Conference.
- Categories
- Agriculture
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Climate smart farmers get tech savvy to save India’s bread basket
Erratic weather, rising temperatures, declining water resources and labour shortages are threatening India's bread basket state of Haryana, forcing farmers to abandon age-old practices and adopt technology to ensure food supplies for millions.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Environment, Health Care
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- nutrition
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NexThought Monday – Between the CEO and the BoP: Root Capital report focuses on the often overlooked role of women as “middle managers”
Root Capital CEO Willy Foote says the impact investment firm realized that most approaches to women’s economic empowerment have focused on the opposite ends of the economic spectrum: business leaders and entrepreneurs on one side, and women workers at the BoP on the other. But what about women who are not CEOs or entrepreneurs but who hold positions critical to the success of the enterprise?
- Categories
- Agriculture
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Four reasons why Modi’s toilet obsession is good for India
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Swach Bharat scheme aims to eliminate open defecation by constructing toilets in every household by 2019. No one doubts the need for the programme. Close to 48% of India’s urban population has no access to toilets. In rural areas, the number stands at 60%.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Health Care
- Region
- South Asia
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Nexthought Monday – Fertilizer as Both Friend AND Foe: How to use them more responsibly, effectively and for farmers – profitably
More than 100 million tons of fertilizers are applied worldwide each year, supplying our planet with plentiful harvests. But that’s only part of the story. At Semilla Nueva, we have a lot of interest in how fertilizers can be used responsibly and sustainably to feed our growing planet and boost farmers’ incomes in the process.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Social Enterprise
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PRESS RELEASE: PepsiCo Unveils New Water-Modeling Tool at World Water Week
Wednesday at the Stockholm International Water Institute's annual World Water Week, PepsiCo announced the company's latest Water Report and unveiled Hydro-BID, a ground-breaking data management and modeling tool developed in partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) that estimates the availability of freshwater in water-scarce regions throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Health Care, Technology
- Region
- Latin America
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Artisanal chocolate shop focuses on education
Introducing Michael Sacco, the founder of ChocoSol, a learning community/social enterprise that focuses on making the ‘food of the gods’ – commonly known as cacao – into fresh, whole food, stone ground chocolate on an artisanal scale.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- Latin America