-
NexThought Monday: Coffee Talk (and Action): Sustainable Harvest’s Griswold on supply chain empathy and what’s brewing for smallholder farmers
The drive toward transparency and “empathy” has been David Griswold’s mission since creating Sustainable Harvest, a seller of fair trade coffee to the likes of Green Mountain and Whole Foods. This mission to inject more symmetry into the business has served Sustainable Harvest well. In 2013, the company closed $70 million in global sales. He spoke with NextBillion about what’s next.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Education
-
More weather index insurance for African smallholder farmers
Weather insurance is a financial product aiming to help African farmers manage the volatility of drought and other weather crises. This week (14 Jan), IFC (www.ifc.org) signed 2 grant agreements with MicroEnsure Ltd to make more index-based weather insurance available to small-scale farmers in Rwanda and Zambia. Index-based insurance pays out on the basis of agreed weather data, such as rainfall as measured being lower than an agreed level, and is more efficient risk management tool than traditional indemnity-based agricultural insurance, which runs up high transaction costs and premiums.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
-
Incofin Investment Management endorses need for agricultural finance by launching new $200 million agRIF fund
Incofin Investment Management (IM) is seeking to raise around USD 200 million for its new agRIF fund which will focus on the unmet global demand for financial services that target smallholder farmers.
- Categories
- Agriculture
-
Small Farms, Big Funding Gap: Local bank financing for smallholder farmers meets only 3 percent of overall demand
New research reveals that local bank lending to smallholder farmers – which should be a main avenue for improving their access to finance – meets less than 3 percent of their estimated financing demand. This gap represents an obstacle to global poverty reduction efforts - and a compelling opportunity for buyers, lenders and other actors in the agricultural value chain.
- Categories
- Agriculture
-
Beyond Technology: Five ways to support water irrigation in Sub Saharan Africa
Despite the growing demand for irrigation technology, the International Water Management Institute found that farmers still face significant barriers to groundwater irrigation success, particularly in Sub Saharan Africa. This is why the relatively low cost treadle pump grew in popularity, but it’s not the only solution.
- Categories
- Agriculture
-
A Really Big Tent: Danone trying to maximize its potential through inclusiveness
Confronting the global economic crisis in recent years, Danone came up with an ambitious new business model that includes all the stakeholders in its ecosystem: employees, customers, farmers, suppliers, subcontractors, transporters, distributors, the places where it operates.
- Categories
- Agriculture
-
Why mobile money can work in rural areas
Mobile money is an important means of facilitating the transfer of funds across rural areas in Africa, but services are often designed to function in a specific way – which might not be to the benefit of all who are making use of them.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
-
Can data-driven solutions change Africa’s agriculture sector?
Despite accounting for 65 percent of the labor force and making up 32 percent of its gross domestic product, Africa’s agricultural sector gets less than one percent of commercial bank loans.
- Categories
- Agriculture