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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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

Linking technical assistance to blended finance for agriculture

Report: On behalf of IDH and Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), Enclude has recently completed a report analyzing trends and lessons learned about how technical assistance can contribute to scaling investments in the agricultural sector.

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.

Learning to manage risk: CSAF lenders' past year in the context of Inflection Point

Analysis: The Learning Lab recently supported research by the MIX on detailed 2015 lending data from leading social lenders, who make up the Council on Smallholder Agricultural Finance (CSAF). The findings were summarized in the 2015 CSAF annual report, which takes a deeper look into the current state of the sector through the lens of donors, investors, and lenders. Dan Zook, Director of Investments at the Initiative for Smallholder Finance (ISF), unpacks some of the key highlights from the report, many of which corroborate and illustrate major insights from our study, Inflection Point.

Strengthening farmer resilience through complementary solutions

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.

Summary of 2015 FGDA conference: Improving financial inclusion of smallholder farmers

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.

Case study: The return on investment from TechnoServe’s coffee initiative

Analysis: The ninth briefing note in a series from the Initiative for Smallholder Finance is a case study of a TechnoServe project aiming to increase incomes of smallholder coffee farmers in East Africa.

Technical assistance for smallholder farmers: Anatomy of the market

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.

Investor and funder guide to the agricultural social lending sector

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.