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Faulu Microfinance Bank Targets Farmers with Sh1.5 Billion Loan in Kenya
Rising input prices, climate change and limited market access have left farmers struggling to meet planting expenses.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Environment, Finance
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Outgrowing the Flower Pot: Why Just Selling Productive Equipment to Smallholder Farmers is Not Enough
A new wave of companies are bringing equipment powered by renewable, decentralized energy to smallholders, and these devices can significantly boost farmers' yields and product quality. But as Daniel Waldron, Christopher Emmott, Priyanka Dudeja, Paraag Sabhlok and Chris Wayne at Acumen explain, just like a tree growing in a flower pot, this new growth can become a burden if it has nowhere to go. They argue that productive equipment must be combined with market access interventions to truly benefit smallholders, and highlight two innovative companies that are demonstrating the impact of this approach.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy, Investing, Social Enterprise, Technology
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Bringing Agricultural Insurance to Climate-Vulnerable Farmers: A Unique Pilot Program in Nepal Shows How to Unlock the Benefits of Index-Based Insurance for Smallholders
Nepal's topography and climatic conditions make it uniquely prone to natural disasters. As Maria Perdomo at UNCDF explains, these disasters threaten the country's economic development, and smallholder farmers and rural women are disproportionately affected. She discusses a UNCDF pilot program that brought agricultural insurance coverage to Nepali smallholders, and shares learnings from the program that could inform efforts to deliver insurance to farmers in other climate-vulnerable countries in Asia and beyond.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Environment, Finance
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Empowering Women to Fight Climate Change: A Program in Zambia Shows How Smallholder Farmers Can Lead the Way
Southern Africa has faced persistent drought, erratic rainfall and other consequences of climate change. And as Simon Crittle at International Development Enterprises (iDE) explains, women are disproportionately impacted by these challenges. He discusses an iDE program that trains farmers in Zambia to sell climate-smart agricultural inputs and services to their fellow smallholders — an initiative that it demonstrates the impact market-based interventions can have in preparing women farmers to play a leading role in addressing the climate crisis.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Environment
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Semaai Nets Funding to Create Integrated Digital Ecosystem for Farmers, Toko Tanis in Indonesia
Semaai provides customised consultancy, productivity tools, farming inputs such as seed and fertiliser products and access to better markets.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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Acumen Invests in SokoFresh to Reduce Post-Harvest Losses for Farmers
Acumen’s investment aims to support SokoFresh in building out dozens more units, impacting the lives of thousands of farmers.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy, Social Enterprise, Technology
- Region
- Global
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African Development Bank Approves $50 Million and Eur 50 Million Trade Finance Transaction Line of Credit for Ecowas Bank for Investment and Development (Ebid) To Enhance Food Security and Boost Agricultural Value Chains in the Region
The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group has approved a dual-currency Trade Finance Line of Credit for ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID).
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Some Things Have to Die for Others to Live: Why Scaling Down is Just as Important as Scaling Up in the Transformation of Global Food Systems
Multiple crises have exposed the fragility and inequity of global food systems. But according to Eva Valencia and Lennart Woltering at CIMMYT and Frédéric Goulet at CIRAD, strategies to transform the world's food systems typically focus on introducing or scaling up new innovations and programs, while failing to scale down the habits, mindsets and institutions that are perpetuating the problem. They explore a key example of this issue — the ongoing use of unsustainable farming practices like tilling — and discuss how farmers can move toward more sustainable "no-till" practices that protect soil health.
- Categories
- Agriculture
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