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‘The Dumbest Waste of Time Ever’: How the Development Sector is Failing MSMEs
Low-income business owners often keep poor records and don't always keep close tabs on their profits versus expenses – a side effect of by-necessity entrepreneurship. Global development organizations naturally want to help - yet too many programs offer skills development as one-off training. According to business development consultant Donna Rosa, helping entrepreneurs create business plans only to abandon them to fend for themselves is "the dumbest waste of time ever." She explains why in this thought-provoking post.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Investing
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Better Data for Better Products: New Online Resource Aims to Close the $200 Billion Smallholder Finance Gap
The US $200 billion gap in farmer finance is a tremendous opportunity – but it's one that financial service providers are missing, due to the lack of transparent and reliable data. That's why One Acre Fund and MIX, with support from the Mastercard Foundation's RAF Learning Lab, launched the Smallholder Finance Product Explorer. A May 8 webinar will show industry actors how to use some of these new online tools to reach the 450 million smallholders in need of financing.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Investing
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Using big data to link poor farmers to finance
The global growth of microfinance banks has created new opportunities for financial inclusion, with outstanding lending of $100 billion to around 200 million clients. Yet the majority of lending from microfinance institutions has been to urban populations and not to the rural poor or small farmers.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Finance
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Gramophone: Farm doctors at your service
The Indore-based startup is leveraging technology to make farming more predictable and profitable for farmers in Madhya Pradesh, India.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- agtech, data, social enterprise
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Understanding China’s foreign agriculture investments in the developing world
Developing countries in Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America were among China’s investment regions, with the investment types and goals differing for each.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Investing
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Press release: Africa’s Biggest Farmer Collective to Help 100,000 in Niger Delta as Tata and John Deere Sign Alluvial Initiative
Tractor maker John Deere and India’s biggest conglomerate, Tata Group, have agreed a groundbreaking initiative to provide machinery to as many as 100,000 smallholder farmers in the troubled Niger Delta region.
- Source
- Press release
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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For Solar Irrigation to Grow, the Pump Needs to be Innovative – So Does the Warranty
Helen Davies at Futurepump writes that the startup has developed a cost-effective, solar-based pump to irrigate crops that is simple to use and maintain, and designed specifically with small rural farms in mind. The firm has already sold 4,000 units and is distributing in 11 African and Asian countries. But beyond the technology, an equally important innovation is the company's five-year warranty on the product, which Davies says is an industry first. She makes the case that solar device makers operating in low-income markets need to stand behind their products with warrantees and service, if customers are going to trust the technology and the manufacturers.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy, Technology
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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
- Tags
- global development, SDGs