In this emergency briefing series, ISF Advisors and the RAF Learning Lab will look at how the COVID-19 crisis is likely to affect different types of rural households in emerging markets and what the cascading effects may be on markets, food security, and national security. This briefing series seeks to be pragmatic and elevate the real experiences of smallholders and service providers who are most affected by ripple effects in the economy. The series builds on the 2019 Pathways to Prosperity report and provides tangible recommendations to critical decision makers on how rural agricultural livelihoods can be supported. In this brief, we look at how the COVID-19 crisis will impact small and medium agricultural enterprises (agri-SMEs) in emerging markets that, in many value chains, are squeezed between a drastic decline in consumer demand and difficult operating conditions along the supply chain.
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27 May 2020
COVID-19 Emergency Briefing: High-risk households dependent on, and critical for, food supply chains
07 May 2020
In this emergency briefing series, ISF Advisors and the RAF Learning Lab will look at how the COVID-19 crisis is likely to affect rural livelihoods and what the cascading effects may be on markets, food security, and national stability. This briefing series seeks to be pragmatic and elevate the real experiences of smallholders and service providers who are most impacted by ripple effects in the economy. The series builds on the 2019 Pathways to Prosperity report, and provides tangible recommendations to critical decision makers on how rural agricultural livelihoods can be supported. In this brief, we look at how the COVID-19 crisis will impact commercializing farmers who are at the heart of many countries’ food supply chains, and who depend on vulnerable ecosystems to survive. For the impact on subsistence farmers please refer to Pathway 1: Vulnerable households at the edge of the pandemic.
Partner Spotlight: Insights from AGRA’s Financial Inclusion to Smallholder Farmers in Africa Program
28 Apr 2020
The emergence and expansion of digital infrastructure in even the hardest to reach rural regions of Kenya, Tanzania and Ghana are making the delivery of financial services to rural communities much cheaper and less risky. Physical infrastructure is no longer required in order to reach farmers, bringing down the cost for providers to serve them. And as more data on smallholder farmers becomes available for analysis, certification and rating purposes, the transactional risks are also reduced. There is significant scope, therefore, for digital tools to play a role in facilitating assured markets, contracts, extension, information, price transparency and facilitating access to finance for smallholder farmers in these three markets.
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Tool: We found this dashboard created by 60 Decibels (funded by DFID’s Research and Evidence Division) to be a useful resource in understanding the lived experience of Kenyan farmers through the pandemic. Here’s a summary of what they are learning:
Report: This brief looks at how the COVID-19 crisis will impact rural, informal micro-enterprises that are at the heart of community financial liquidity; often finance household expenses, such as school fees and healthcare costs; and are disproportionately run by women.
Report:
500 million households globally depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. Increasingly affected by...