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From Planning to Execution: Using Value Chain Approach to Lending to Smallholder Farmers and Agribusiness
Lack of financial data about agribusinesses and smallholder farmers makes it even more difficult to adopt conventional methods of credit assessment. Most plain vanilla financial products are ill-suited to the cash flow requirements of an agribusiness, which is often cyclical in nature. But where most financial institutions see a challenge, we at Samunnati saw an opportunity in lending to smallholder farmers and agribusinesses.
- Categories
- Agriculture
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Kenyan Government-backed Insurance to Cushion Farmers Against Poor Harvests
Farmers are set to benefit from a government-backed insurance plan with seven underwriters offering a cover against poor yields.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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‘The Face of the African Entrepreneur’
The third annual Sankalp Africa Summit takes place Feb. 24-26 in Nairobi and is centered on the theme “Spurring the Entrepreneurship Economy.” In previewing the summit, Sheena Raikundalia of Intellecap interviewed Vava Angwenyi, founder of Vava Coffee. The Kenyan enterprise is creating sustainable livelihoods for over 30,000 smallholder coffee farmers as well as employing HIV-positive women and ex-offenders in the informal settlements surrounding the capital.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Investing
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Connecting With the Customer – When the Lines of Connection Do Not Exist
We created WeFarm, a social enterprise whose target market is small-scale farmers located in remote areas without Internet access. WeFarm provides a platform for farmers to share information on agriculture with one another, which makes our business model globally scalable. Wikipedia and Google are great examples of organizations and businesses that have executed community platforms very successfully, but the model isn’t widely used in the developing world.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Technology
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Financing the Farming of the Future
According to the World Bank, 78 percent of the world’s poor are rural poor, and many of them are farmers. If you are looking for social returns, there are few better places to invest than in agriculture. Yet, we see significant unmet capital needs. At Calvert Foundation is interested in bringing additional capital to grow this important sector and encouraging other private investors to join as well. Fair trade lending has been an important movement in the agriculture sector, and has led to the creation of critical jobs and economic activity. But how can we learn from pioneer investors and encourage capital to address the significant gaps in financing for innovations in the value chains for locally consumed crops?
- Categories
- Agriculture, Investing
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Unilever and Acumen Announce Investment to Bring Cleaner, More Affordable Cook Stoves to Smallholder Farmers and Plantation Workers in East Africa
Acumen and Unilever announced today they will invest nearly $800,000 to enable BURN Manufacturing to bring its new low-cost, energy-efficient, wood-burning cook stove, the Kuniokoa™, to smallholder and plantation workers in tea estates in Kenya and Tanzania.
- Categories
- Environment
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Smallholder Farmers and Big Business: 5 Insights from the Field
Modern agricultural practices and new technologies have transformed the productivity and lives of large farmers, but often fail to reach small and very small farmers for a variety of reasons. However, some pioneer companies and organizations across the world have sustainably increased the income and livelihoods of millions of smallholder farmers, by sourcing produce from them or selling products to them. What do these pioneers tell us?
- Categories
- Agriculture, Impact Assessment
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Mercy Corps, MasterCard Foundation Launch Program to Boost Access to Financial, Informational Services for Smallholder Farmers in Kenya
New AgriFin Accelerate initiative to address barriers to access and use of financial services, especially for young women and youth.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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