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Making it Rain: The Forecast on Weather Index Insurance
A host of risks, including too much or too little rain, keeps farmers from adopting inputs and practices that may yield more profitable crops. But weather index insurance could be the hedge many farmers need. The Agricultural Technology Adoption Initiative reviewed several randomized control trials about how to make insurance a more attractive option for farmers.
- Categories
- Agriculture
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An inflection point in the era of “farmer finance” for the world’s smallholders
A new study, “Inflection Point: Unlocking growth in the era of farmer finance,” suggests that while current efforts to expand financial inclusion are not sufficient to meet smallholder demand, concerted efforts around customer centricity, progressive partnerships, and smart subsidy have the potential to change the sector’s growth trajectory to best serve the world’s smallholder farmers.
- Categories
- Agriculture
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Mobile Drought Insurance to Protect Africa’s Farmers
A mobile insurance scheme to help small-scale farmers in Kenya ensure their agricultural produce against drought and other natural disasters is spreading to other parts of Africa, as Neil Ford explains.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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The Digital Cloud that Hangs Over Every African Farm
The African continent is at the forefront of the mobile revolution, with nearly 700 million mobile phone accounts — more than in the U.S. and Europe combined. Africa has also become the world leader in mobile banking. But mobile phones and even mobile money accounts do not amount to digital financial inclusion.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Technology
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Small Farmers Meet Big Data: How the Data Revolution Could Transform Smallholder Finance
The enormous gap between the supply and demand of formal credit for smallholder farmers has been well documented. Among the varied causes of this mismatch is the extreme lack of information on potential borrowers that’s available to lenders. Two recent data-focused innovations, however, could dramatically reduce these information challenges and the associated lending risks, which could help open up pools of capital for previously underserved populations.
- Categories
- Agriculture
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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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