Using a rare flood in April 2019 in Iran as a natural experiment, we study the role of local banks in mitigating the financial consequence of natural disasters to smallholder farmers. We find that local branches immediately react to the disaster by increasing their lending for two months...

The Agricultural Development Bank of Pakistan (ADBP), which provides most formal loans in Pakistan's rural areas, lends to largeholders far more than to smallholders, although the impact of credit is greater for the smallholders. Targeting credit to smallholders would make ADBP's credit scheme...

Both formal, and informal loans matter in agriculture. But formal lenders provide much more in production lending, than do informal lenders, often at a higher cost than what they can recover. The Agricultural Development Bank of Pakistan (ADBP), for example, providing about 90 percent of formal...