In most emerging markets, the lack of acceptable collateral is often cited as a key constraint on the provision of credit to agriculture. Three main types of collateral are typically used to finance agriculture: farmland, equipment, and agricultural commodities. In many economies, however, the...

This note aims at analyzing lessons learned from matching grants projects for farmers and agricultural SMEs and providing guidance to TTLs on successful design. It is part of a series of agriculture finance policy notes. This note has benefited from peer review comments by Mike Goldberg, Diane...

This article examines the challenges facing agriculture in Africa. First the article outlines agriculture’s connection with overall economic growth; then, the author evaluates agricultural productivity and food security in Africa in 2010. From this point, the author evaluates the...

Women in rural areas, and in particular female farmers, have significantly less access to financial services than their male counterparts. Such limited access is harmful to female farmers and their families and significantly impedes their ability to grow and prosper. Female farmers tend to have...

Liberalization of tropical agricultural markets has brought globalization, in the sense that all producers now face world rather than domestic prices. Producer prices have tended to rise as a share of fob prices as intermediation costs and tax has declined. However, in conjunction with inelastic...