Inflection Point: Unlocking growth in the era of farmer finance
This report by the Rural and Agricultural Finance Learning Lab and the Initiative for Smallholder Finance captures the way the smallholder finance space currently operates by describing the key actors and the nature of their interactions, and by conceptualizing these in a new “industry model.” The report identifies market frictions across the major components of the “industry model” that continue to inhibit smallholder farmers’ access to financial services and opportunities for removing them, and rallies sector actors around the need for more collective action than ever before. A key finding is that the gap today between smallholder finance supply and need is significant and projected growth of 7% per year for formal finance providers will not significantly cut into it over the next five years. The authors highlight that in order to fulfill the promise of the era of farmer finance, now is the time to push the sector toward an ambitious new trajectory.