September Focus Topic: Agriculture

Friday
September 8
2017

September Focus Topic: Agriculture

Agriculture lies at the heart of economic life at the base of the pyramid. And with over 450 million smallholder farmers supporting about 2 billion people worldwide, initiatives and enterprises serving the sector can make an outsized impact. But like farmers themselves, they also face significant challenges, from the unpredictability of the weather, to difficulties reaching communities in remote rural areas. This series explores the innovations and enterprises that are addressing these challenges head-on.

Photo: A’Melody Lee / World Bank

Guest Articles

Friday
December 22
2017

Gaita Kariuki

There’s No App to Fix Farming – A Lifelong Smallholder Shares What Social Business is Getting Wrong

When it comes to farming, the social business world is getting it all wrong, says Gaita Kariuki, a lifelong smallholder and CEO of Selina Wamucii, a Kenya-based fresh produce startup. From overselling the impact of off-grid solar and access to loans, to underestimating the importance of middlemen, he says much of the social business sector's approach to agriculture makes little sense to smallholders.

Categories
Agriculture, Social Enterprise

Tags
Base of the Pyramid, business development, financial inclusion, poverty alleviation, smallholder farmers
Guest Articles

Friday
September 29
2017

James Karuga

The Protein Bottleneck: Are Insects the Solution to the High Cost of Livestock Feeds?

In 2012, 16.3 million tonnes of fish produced were used to make fish oil and fishmeal feed for animals. This threatens food security and is unsustainable. One solution to that problem, making the feed from Black Soldier Fly larvae, also has the potential to create thousands of jobs and a new agribusiness sector in Kenya, writes James Karuga.

Categories
Agriculture, Environment, Social Enterprise

Tags
Base of the Pyramid, business development, poverty alleviation, research, social enterprise
Guest Articles

Thursday
September 28
2017

Gigi Gatti

The Power of SMS: How Simple Texts Can Provide a Lifeline for Farmers

Last month, nearly 3,000 coconut farmers in Mindanao received a text from FarmerLink warning that conditions were ripe for infestation by two devastating insect pests, allowing them to take preventive action. That's just one way SMS messages are being used by FarmerLink, a rural advisory service formed by Grameen Foundation and other partners. The foundation's Gigi Gatti explains how the project, which also connects farmers with buyers and other services, is impacting smallholders 18 months after its launch.

Categories
Agriculture, Technology

Tags
agtech, smallholder farmers
Guest Articles

Wednesday
September 27
2017

Nupur Parikh

Small Tweak, Big Impact: How a ‘Simple Innovation’ Convinced Farmers to Improve Agricultural Inputs

TechnoServe and the Gulu Agricultural Development Company (GADC), an agricultural company based in northern Uganda, partnered to see if a simple market innovation would spur farmers to use a hybrid maize seed and boost productivity. The results – as measured by a randomized control trial involving 1,000 farmers – show what is possible with even modest market nudges.

Categories
Agriculture, Impact Assessment

Tags
research, smallholder farmers
Guest Articles

Monday
September 25
2017

Mikael L. Clason Höök / Malia Bachesta

On ‘World Food Day’: Using Fintech to Support Smallholder Farmers and Feed the World

More smallholder farmers are using digital tools to access funds to improve their farms. But with a whopping US $200 billion gap in financing, many cannot access the financing they need to invest in things like seeds, fertilizers and irrigation technologies to increase production and improve their livelihoods. Mikael L. Clason Höök and Malia Bachesta of the RAF Learning Lab highlight several innovative fintech companies that are addressing barriers faced by smallholder farmers.

Categories
Agriculture, Finance, Technology

Tags
Base of the Pyramid, financial inclusion, fintech, poverty alleviation, smallholder farmers
Friday
September 22
2017

Clara Yoon

A New Era of Farming: Unlocking Innovations for Smallholders Via Non-Traditional Finance

Non-Traditional Finance (NTF) may be critical to unlocking innovation processes among smallholder farmers, and could represent an untapped opportunity to enable them to break the cycle of poverty. But there's a lack of guidance on promising practices for the systemic application of NTF to support scaling of smallholder farmer innovations. That's why MEDA launched a call for proposals for NTF ideas, for which the deadline is Oct. 6.

Categories
Agriculture, Finance

Tags
Base of the Pyramid, business development, financial inclusion, poverty alleviation, smallholder farmers
Guest Articles

Wednesday
September 20
2017

Will McAneny

Ag Stigma Be Damned: Flipping the Script for Young People, Farming and Investment

Smallholder farmers are getting older – the average age of a coffee farmer is 60 – and fewer and fewer young people are replacing them. This problem isn’t new. But it’s becoming more and more urgent. Will McAneny at Root Capital writes about several agricultural businesses that are flipping the script by asking: What if opportunity flourished on the farm?

Categories
Agriculture, Education, Investing

Tags
employment, smallholder farmers, youth
Guest Articles

Monday
September 18
2017

Sneha Sampath

Can Next-Generation Startups Unite Agritech and Fintech for Farmers in Emerging Markets?

An amalgamation of agritech and fintech solutions could have an incredible impact for the masses, especially populations that work within the agriculture chain. But making these apps and other digital solutions more user-friendly is critical to expanding their usage. Developers may need to borrow the best toolsets from both sectors, writes Sneha Sampath with Unitus Seed Fund.

Categories
Agriculture, Finance, Technology

Tags
agtech, credit scoring, financial inclusion, fintech, insurance, microfinance, savings, supply chains
Guest Articles

Wednesday
September 13
2017

Cristina Manfre / Christopher Burns

From Farm to Phone to Table: A Case Study Series Explores the Impact of Digital Tools on Agriculture

Over the past decade, the use of mobile phones and other digital tools in farming has skyrocketed. Today, more than 60 percent of the population in the developing world now have at least one mobile phone. USAID aims to show that digital tools can improve cost-effectiveness and development outcomes in food security and nutrition programs. Cristina Manfre and Christopher Burns explain a USAID case study series on different approaches.

Categories
Agriculture, Technology

Tags
Base of the Pyramid, smallholder farmers
Guest Articles

Tuesday
September 12
2017

Hillary Miller-Wise

Why We Broke Up the Company: A Former CEO of M-Agri Pioneer Esoko Explains

After a rapid revenue increase and the development of a mobile commerce platform, Esoko saw that it had some challenges balancing its very different product lines. Former CEO Hillary Miller-Wise walks us through the m-agri pioneer's decision to spin off into two companies.

Categories
Agriculture, Social Enterprise, Technology

Tags
Base of the Pyramid, poverty alleviation, rural development, social enterprise
Guest Articles

Friday
September 8
2017

Julia Entwistle

Cash, Trees, Honey and Bees: Enticing Ethiopia’s Farmers Toward Eco-Stewardship

In Ethiopia, use of herbicides as well as loss of habitat are causing a reduction in the local pollinator population, not unlike the global trend of pollinator decline that is threatening food security around the world. Julia Entwistle, a graduate student at the University of Michigan's School for Environment and Sustainability, details her summer internship with an organization trying to balance the interests of nature and farmers through profits.

Categories
Agriculture

Tags
smallholder farmers
Guest Articles

Tuesday
September 5
2017

Blaine Stephens / Mike Warmington

Financial Inclusion is Failing Farmers: How the Sector Can Finally Reach the $200 Billion Smallholder Market

There are 450 million smallholder farmers supporting about 2 billion people worldwide. Yet financing available to farmers lags behind the need, which is estimated in excess of $200 billion. Blaine Stephens of MIX and Mike Warmington of One Acre Fund explore the reasons why and offer potential solutions – including a new, centralized directory their organizations are building, which provides useful information on existing smallholder finance products.

Categories
Agriculture, Social Enterprise

Tags
Base of the Pyramid, financial inclusion, poverty alleviation, social enterprise

NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

NextBillion Series.

September Focus Topic: Agriculture

There’s No App to Fix Farming – A Lifelong Smallholder Shares What Social Business is Getting Wrong

The Protein Bottleneck: Are Insects the Solution to the High Cost of Livestock Feeds?

The Power of SMS: How Simple Texts Can Provide a Lifeline for Farmers

Small Tweak, Big Impact: How a ‘Simple Innovation’ Convinced Farmers to Improve Agricultural Inputs

On ‘World Food Day’: Using Fintech to Support Smallholder Farmers and Feed the World

A New Era of Farming: Unlocking Innovations for Smallholders Via Non-Traditional Finance

Ag Stigma Be Damned: Flipping the Script for Young People, Farming and Investment

Can Next-Generation Startups Unite Agritech and Fintech for Farmers in Emerging Markets?

From Farm to Phone to Table: A Case Study Series Explores the Impact of Digital Tools on Agriculture

Why We Broke Up the Company: A Former CEO of M-Agri Pioneer Esoko Explains

Cash, Trees, Honey and Bees: Enticing Ethiopia’s Farmers Toward Eco-Stewardship

Financial Inclusion is Failing Farmers: How the Sector Can Finally Reach the $200 Billion Smallholder Market

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