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A Business Opportunity With Exponential Benefits: Linking Agriculture and Energy to Improve Livelihoods in Africa
Agriculture contributes around 23% of sub-Saharan Africa’s GDP, and energy access can help drive agricultural development. However, Scarlett Santana at RMI points out that the region has few businesses enabling productive energy uses in agriculture, and the lack of electricity for mechanization is limiting growth in rural communities. She explores the opportunities that exist for agribusinesses that link their investment and other business decisions to energy considerations – and for energy businesses that link their efforts to agriculture.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy
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Reshamandi Raises Us $30 Million in India’s Largest Series a Funding for a B2B Marketplace, Led by Creation Investments
ReshaMandi, India’s first silk-tech startup that serves as a B2B marketplace for silk farmers, businesses, and retailers in India, announced a Series A funding round of US $30 million, led by global alternative investment manager Creation Investments and other investors.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Viewpoint: African Agriculture Without African Farmers
Mass dispossession of smallholder farmers is not a side effect of the ‘African Green Revolution’. It is the whole point.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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The Japan International Cooperation Agency Invests $2.5 Million In Fly-based Sanitation Startup in Nairobi
The Japan International Cooperation Agency has invested $2.5 million in a U.S. startup in Nairobi that uses flies to process biowaste in an initiative to help address the city's growing sanitation needs.
- Categories
- Environment
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Analysis: The Impact of COVID-19 on Black Farmers in South Africa
It is estimated that just 7,000 farmers (almost all white) account for over 80% of the value of agricultural production, while around 2 million black households are involved in agriculture on small pieces of land without access to markets.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Coronavirus
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Asian Development Bank Approves $100 Million Loan for Agribusiness Development in India
Despite ample opportunities for the growth of horticulture, most smallholder farmers still practice subsistence farming because of fragmented land ownership, insufficient capital to scale up, and lack of direct access to emerging high-value markets.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- Asia Pacific
- Tags
- scale, smallholder farmers
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Analysis: Number Theory: Understanding the Business of Farming in India
Supporters of the three farm laws have been arguing that the new regime will help farmers receive better prices by selling products in the open market rather than the APMCs. SAS data does not support such a claim.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Curbing Deforestation in Sub-Saharan Africa: Why Woodfuel Alternatives Are a Key Sustainable Solution
Deforestation is rampant in sub-Saharan Africa – the only region where the pace of forest loss has increased in each of the last three decades. According to Ian Otula and Aaron Pattillo of Vuma Biofuels and Wassa N’Gandjo Cisse of the BESTSELLER Foundation, the root cause of this crisis is the fact that woodfuels provide over 80% of the region's energy, and there's an alarming imbalance between supply and demand. They explore how woodfuel substitutes can offer a solution to this issue – and how Vuma Biofuels is leveraging these sustainable fuel sources to address a key driver of deforestation in Kenya: the tea industry.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment
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