Farmer Technical Assistance

Technical assistance programs can be highly effective in helping smallholder farmers improve their agronomic skills, business and financial skills, and access to markets, though current donor spending is small relative to the potential need. TA for farmers can include: agronomic training, including public sector extension, value chain development, and financial or digital literacy.

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Webinar Materials: Women's empowerment in smallholder finance, combining social and business goals for good

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Women comprise approximately 50% of the labor force in sub-Saharan Africa and...

Why Root Capital's talent management program is a win-win for rural businesses and young talent

Spotlight: Each year, more than 10 million young people across Africa enter the job market, competing for just three million formal jobs. As the continent’s youth population swells steadily towards a projected total of 800 million by 2050, this demographic crisis will intensify even further.

Video: Going digital to reach the unreachable

Media: In this seven-minute video, the Lab digs deep into business model sustainability by following the Musoni Kenya team to understand how going digital can help achieve scale and drive profitability.

Multiple farmers working in single field

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Agricultural technical assistance: catching up to its potential

Analysis: Part 4 of ISF's and RAF Learning Lab's Pulse series draws insights from the evolving Technical Assistance (TA) landscape in agricultural finance.

Strong women, strong farms: Empowering female smallholders through access to finance

Spotlight: Across Africa, 80% of agricultural production comes from smallholder farmers, most of which are rural women. Yet, in countries like Senegal, only 20% of women have access to financial services and less than 30% of them are involved in governance for their Producer Organizations (POs). As a result, many women struggle to scale their farms and build their businesses. This blog explains how the ICCO STARS program, a Learning Lab partner, is working to address this challenge and empower female farmers through stronger access to finance.

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Report: Root Capital's December issue brief, Investing in Resilience: A Shared Value Approach to Agricultural Extension, focuses on scaling climate-smart practices through agricultural extension services.

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Report: The 2015 international FGDA conference, "Improving Financial Inclusion of Smallholder Farmers”, brought together industry experts from MFIs and agricultural finance providers to exchange ideas and share best practices to close the financing gap for smallholder farmers.

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Analysis: The seventh briefing note in a series from the Initiative for Smallholder Finance categorizes and characterizes the different kinds of agricultural technical assistance in operation in developing countries around the world.

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Analysis: The fifth briefing note in a series from the Initiative for Smallholder Finance examines current lending practices among social lenders, considers the future trajectory of the sector, and highlights opportunities for investors and funders to support the sector’s future growth.