Finance for Smallholders: opportunities for risk management by linking financial institutions and producer organisations
This research (PDF) initiated by the Rural Finance working group of NpM, coordinated by ICCO Terrafina Microfinance and carried out in cooperation with AgriProFocus and the Wageningen UR, aimed to investigated the bottlenecks that exist to finance smallholder farmers. The research provides insight into how food production systems work and how they can be strengthened with improved financial services. The success factors of 14 projects in four African countries – Ethiopia, Mali, Uganda and Rwanda – have been analysed. In addition to specific financing mechanisms, the cooperation between financial institutions, producer organizations and investors has been examined and specific risk mitigation strategies have been investigated. The research report shows that linking financial institutions and producer organizations together offers new finance opportunities because risks are reduced.