finance

This briefing by The Initiative For Smallholder Finance explores the causes of low uptake in digital credit for smallholders in Tanzania. Dalberg’s Design Impact Group (DIG) explores these causes to better understand how concrete product solutions to jump-start adoption of digital credit products can be developed. Digital credit products represent an important financial inclusion opportunity for smallholder farmers in Tanzania, where close to 80% of the workforce is engaged in farming. Uptake of these products by smallholder farmers, however, remains limited. »

This note by IFAD is focusing on how digital financial services (DFSs) are meeting the financial needs of smallholder households. The authors offer examples of smallholder-specific DFSs as well as mainstream ones, highlighting the implications in each case for smallholder farmers and their households. Significant challenges remain to a more extensive, scalable supply of digital financial offerings for smallholder farmers. »

This research from the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) focused on private sector investment in a changing climate and aimed to explore how domestic private sector investments can support climate risk management along agricultural value chains. Two briefing notes and a video share the insights from case study research that was conducted in collaboration with a domestic seed company, Equator Seeds Ltd in Northern Uganda, and the Centenary Bank Ltd., a commercial bank in Eastern Uganda. »

This paper by the African Centre for Biodiversity (ACBIO) reviews the farm input subsidy programmes (FISPs) within countries belonging to the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), to ascertain whether input subsidies have benefited small-scale farmers, have increased food security at the household and national levels, and have improved the incomes of small-scale farmers. »

To implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, developing countries will have to increasingly rely on domestic finance for investment in agriculture. As public funding for agriculture decreases, the role of private investment and, in particular, smallholder farmers, needs to be scaled up to achieve sustainable food security. In this expert opinion published on The Broker, Danko elaborates on the changing landscape of investing in food security and agriculture. »

This report by World Bank inlcudes qualitative interviews with key experts representing different stakeholder groups in the agriculture, climate, and financial sectors were conducted to inform the potential opportunities and innovations that should be further explored to make climate finance work for agriculture. The paper was produced as a background document for the 2016 FAO State of Food and Agriculture report. »