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Farmers Pay Dearly for Fragmented Food System in Kenya
Thande and her family have been floriculturists for years. Venturing into vegetable farming, however, brought her face to face with Kenya’s frustrating food system.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Coronavirus
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Taking Cold Chains Off-Grid: How Solar Powered Cold Rooms Could Dramatically Reduce Food Waste in Sub-Saharan Africa
In sub-Saharan Africa, up to 50% of produce perishes before reaching end customers, largely due to a lack of viable cold chain solutions. Maria Knodt at Energy 4 Impact and Ruth Kimani at CLASP explore how solar-powered cold rooms can address this issue, and highlight some significant technical and business model challenges that could undermine their impact.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Coronavirus, Energy, Finance, Investing, Technology
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Cambodia Is Optimizing Farming Yields With Big Data Insights
Big data might hold the key to unlocking the sustainable potential of the battered Cambodian agriculture sector.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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When the Economics Don’t Work: Realigning Capital Markets with Development Impact
Agricultural SMEs in Africa face a daunting finance gap, and as Brian Milder, founder and CEO at Aceli Africa points out, current lending approaches aren't enough to fill it. He explores Aceli's solution: taking blended finance a step further by creating a mechanism to align impact with financial sustainability for capital providers across the entire marketplace.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Finance, Investing
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Good Nature Agro Closes Series A Funding of $2.1 Million
Good Nature Agro, a Zambian company working from end-to-end within the specialised legume value chains, has announced that it closed Series A equity funding totalling $2.1 million.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Investing
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Making Smartphones Relevant for the World’s Poorest Farmers: An Interview With AgUnity CEO David Davies
Extreme poverty is increasing in countries around the world, particularly in last-mile communities where most people work in agriculture. In this Q&A, AgUnity CEO David Davies discusses his company's efforts to leverage low-cost smartphones and other technologies to provide smallholder farmers with practical tools to connect with each other and work their way out of poverty.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Coronavirus, Finance, Technology
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In Defense of Palm Oil: Why We Should Be Supporting the Industry’s Move Toward Sustainability – Not Demonizing It
After reading Jim R. Richards’ NextBillion op-ed “The Ecological Disaster of Palm Oil: Why It’s Time to Embrace Climate-Friendly Alternatives,” Robert Hii at CSPO-Watch.com felt compelled to respond. He argues that Richards' critique of the palm oil industry's ecological damage fails to recognize its impact on local economic growth and poverty reduction, and ignores its substantial moves toward sustainability.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Environment, Technology
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Viewpoint: Can Economics Trump Politics To Usher in Agricultural Reforms in India?
Indian agriculture has a fundamental problem: around 50 per cent of India’s work force in the agriculture sector contribute only 17 per cent to India’s GDP. This low productivity is the root cause of the low income and economic hardships of farmers.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Finance
- Region
- Asia Pacific