Biblioteca Digital

The study focuses on how agricultural insurance can complement and enhance agricultural risk management in Latin America and Caribbean (LAC). The overall objective of this study is to provide the key elements for a strategy to increase the penetration of agricultural insurance in the region. The study is organized into five chapters, including this introduction. Chapter two provides an overview of the agricultural sector in LAC, including a description of the main farming systems and an assessment of the main perils affecting production. Chapter three describes the current provision of agricultural insurance, describing the evolution of agricultural insurance, providing the current market figures, assessing the availability of agricultural insurance products, describing government support to agricultural insurance, and estimating the current levels of penetration. Chapter four focuses on the challenges in attempting to increase coverage and penetration. It assesses the current gaps in the provision of agricultural insurance...

Financial market liberalization, innovations in the area of risk management, and reductions in transaction and supervisory costs have had significant positive impacts on agricultural finance institutions. Building on these positive developments, this study will attempt to contribute ideas based on recent experiences with innovation from developing countries in order to spur more innovations in rural finance. This study focuses on four key areas where innovation could lead to greater access to agricultural finance: warehouse receipts and collateral securitization mechanisms; risk management products; supply chain finance; and, technology. The paper describes the issues surrounding the themes and how innovative techniques can be used to overcome traditional barriers to providing financial services to agriculture by reducing, either the risks associated with lending, the costs, or both. The diverse group of case studies and thematic discussions also underscore some key lessons regarding the role of government in its quest to lower costs and risk in the rural finance space.

The objective of this report is to contribute to the continuing policy dialogue on financial sector development. It is intended that the analysis and recommendations from this report will contribute towards the preparation and implementation of the National Development Plan (NDP) and the implementation of the Financial Markets Development Plan. The report suggests both policy and institutional reforms to develop rural and agricultural finance. This report has two parts: improving access to financial services and improving the supply of term finance. The first part focuses on three areas: expanding access though the banking system; developing rural and agricultural finance; and improving payments and remittance systems. The second part focuses on three key areas: reforming the pension system; developing the housing finance market; and increasing the private financing of infrastructure. Each chapter has the following structure: the first section provides an overview of the chapter topic; the second presents an analysis of the results of the survey (where applicable) and interviews...

This paper presents a literature review of issues related to recent subsidies and investments in the financial sector that have been designed to address the immediate effects of the crises and to develop the financial institutions necessary to modernize agriculture. Section two of the paper discusses the impact of recent food, fuel, and financial crises on developing countries and the emergency actions taken by countries and international agencies to reduce the suffering inflicted on poor people. It also discusses the challenge of finding a balance between pragmatic immediate responses and longer-term objectives. The third section discusses the role of finance in agricultural development and poverty alleviation. Section four deals with the challenge of creating credit markets in developing countries. The fifth section covers shifts in the paradigm used to intervene in credit markets and summarizes the main features of the old directed-credit and the new financial systems paradigms. This is followed by a sixth section that summarizes highlights in the development of the microfinance industry. It covers guidelines created for developing microfinance...

The history of rural - mostly agricultural - finance in Colombia, is characterized by a system which channels benefits to limited numbers of beneficiaries, at the expense of the public sector, and the economy as a whole. A legacy of powerful agricultural lobbies (coffee, livestock) has translated into sector-biased legislation, that established the "Sistema Nacional de Credito Agropecuario" (National Agricultural Credit System), and related institutions. Nonetheless, current agricultural policies send mixed signals in terms of the degree of protection vs. subjection to market forces producers can expect, thus preventing the development of a profitable, and competitive agriculture. Against this background, the advent of a new administration faced a rather dangerous policy juncture, as the pressure to tackle poverty in rural areas, coincides with severe fiscal, and public debt constraints. The Government however, has now the opportunity to build substantive reforms in the financial sector, enacted under previous regimes. The study found that access to financial services in rural Colombia is limited and segmented...

The Tunisia agricultural finance study was carried out in response to a request made in December 2009 by the Tunisian Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) for support for a study on the key constraints in agricultural finance. Technical and financial support was specifically requested for: (i) a comprehensive diagnostic analysis of the current mechanisms and problems of financing of the agricultural sector in Tunisia, including those by financial institutions and from budget resources, foreign direct investment, and insurance; (ii) a comparison of the Tunisian experience with successful experiences made in other comparable countries; and (iii) the formulation of concrete proposals. The diagnostic part was also requested to include the regulations pertaining to agricultural credit, other constraints impeding the development of agricultural finance, such as costs, profitability, professional organizations, extension services, research etc., and to look at the indebtedness of smallholders. It was also requested that the recommendations help to: (i) better define the objectives to be achieved in terms of financing of agriculture; (ii) increase the participation of the financial sector in financing agriculture; (iii) help identify need for support by different types of farmers; (iv) identify new instruments geared at qualitative and technological changes; (v) reduce the indebtedness of farmers; and (vi) help improve the subsidies for agricultural investment. There are two main written outputs of the Tunisia agricultural finance study. The experts working on the study have compiled a great deal of detailed background information diagnosing the current situation...

Smallholder agriculture in many developing countries has remained largely self-financed. However, improved productivity for attaining greater food security requires better access to institutional credit. Past efforts to extend institutional credit to smaller farmers has failed for several reasons, including subsidized operation of government-aided credit schemes. Thus, recent efforts to expand credit for smallholder agriculture that rely on innovative credit delivery schemes at market prices have received much policy interest. However, thus far the impacts of these efforts are not fully understood. This study examines credit for smallholder agriculture in the context of Uganda, where agriculture is about 35 percent of gross domestic product, most farmers are smallholders, and the country has introduced policies since 2005 to extend credit access to the sector. The analysis uses newly available household panel data from Uganda for 2005-2006 and 2009-2010 to examine (a) whether credit effectively targets agriculture...

Millions of coffee farmers and coffee trading enterprises lack sufficient credit. This is partly due to myriad challenges and considerable costs that formal lending institutions face serving rural, often isolated markets. A better understanding of coffee sector risks is needed to respond with strategies, training, and tools that can help farmers and enterprises, mitigate their exposure to risk, and strengthen their resilience against inevitable shocks. This report explores the role that producer associations, governments, non-profit organizations, the private sector, and other intermediaries can play in making risk management and financing tools more accessible and more workable for smallholder coffee growers. It examines the global coffee sector and outlines: (1) major risks and constraints facing the sector; (2) potential opportunities for improving the management of certain risks; and (3) programs launched in various regions aimed at improving access to finance. Through the use of detailed case studies taken from a number of coffee-producing countries...

This report is organized into three main sections. Section one sets out the context by describing the particular challenges and opportunities related to financing agriculture, followed by defining the target group of agricultural SME s. Section two describes a set of innovative financing models. Section three then provides a framework for an indicative assessment of these models by gathering and forming observations from the case studies. The model observations are then highlighted in three types of country contexts in which bankers in developing countries may find themselves. Preliminary assessment results are presented. The report concludes with key lessons learned on innovative agricultural financing, relevant case studies, and an outlook on further work in this area. Annexes present methodologies and case studies representing the various models.

The percentage of smallholders with access to finance is equally difficult to quantify. According to estimates, even promising approaches to expanding smallholder lending, such as value chain finance, are reaching fewer than 10 percent of smallholders, primarily those in well-established value chains dedicated to higher value cash crops. International Finance Corporation (IFC) has been engaged for several years in learning efforts through diverse partnerships to obtain insights into the challenges of agricultural finance. The evidence of microfinance institution (MFI) involvement in financing commercial and semi-commercial smallholders remains anecdotal and lacks specifics on what makes MFI lending to these segments feasible, and what restricts their reach and effectiveness. This IFC study aims to identify and disseminate lessons emerging from the work of MFIs that have implemented agricultural operations targeting agricultural smallholders in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) to support replication and expansion of scalable approaches. Through this research...

This update considers new findings since the initial Stocktaking report, substantiating the contribution of the private sector, and of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in particular, for new jobs and investment. These findings further illustrate the key role access to finance plays in SMEs abilities and willingness to add jobs including the special circumstances of fast-growing SMEs, or gazelles. The new findings further detail availability and gaps in SME financing, including for specific subsectors such as women-owned firms and agri-enterprises. New trends include progress made in recent years to improve financial markets infrastructure, and expanded lending in countries such as China, which have made progress in this area. The findings also include key private sector innovations pioneered by the SME Finance Challenge winners and other private sector institutions, focusing on key sector opportunities (such as agribusiness and energy), product innovation (such as expanded local currency options), and risk management alternatives. The new findings and trends highlight the potential of collaborative platforms that have emerged from the G-20/GPFI (Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion) process to combine resources to improve SME access to finance...

This issue includes the following headings: seeds and soil: smallholder agriculture; innovation: pairing commercial buyers with rural producers; grain storage: a ready role for public-private partnerships (PPPs); agricultural clusters: powering Africas agricultural potential; and interviews: AgDevCo, bill and Melinda gates foundation, earth policy institute.

This policy note examines the policy and investment framework between 2003 and 2010, resulting sector performance and the priorities for future development. It draws attention to the need to refocus on completing the fundamental reforms and investments on which Kyrgyzstan's early successes were built. These include further development of land market, building rural finance markets, further public investment and institutional development in the irrigation sector, encouraging greater private investment in the seeds sector and machinery services, public-private partnerships for advisory service provision, completion of ongoing reforms in pasture management, development of veterinary services and improving the business environment for private investment in agro-processing. The policy Note discusses the government's approach to achieving greater food security, which centers on food self-sufficiency and discusses why this is not the best route to raising low rural incomes - the root cause of food insecurity. The report discusses some of the policies conceived after the food price crisis...

This policy note examines the policy and investment framework between 2003 and 2010, resulting sector performance and the priorities for future development. It draws attention to the need to refocus on completing the fundamental reforms and investments on which Kyrgyzstan's early successes were built. These include further development of land market, building rural finance markets, further public investment and institutional development in the irrigation sector, encouraging greater private investment in the seeds sector and machinery services, public-private partnerships for advisory service provision, completion of ongoing reforms in pasture management, development of veterinary services and improving the business environment for private investment in agro-processing. The policy Note discusses the government's approach to achieving greater food security, which centers on food self-sufficiency and discusses why this is not the best route to raising low rural incomes - the root cause of food insecurity. The report discusses some of the policies conceived after the food price crisis...

Africa's financial systems face challenges across many dimensions, as discussed in the report financing Africa: through the crisis and beyond. The analysis in that report was based partly on several detailed background papers that are included in this volume. The next six chapters are written by experts in their respective areas and provide an in-depth analysis of these challenges and present possible solutions. In this introduction, the authors provide an overview of the different chapters and how they are related to each other and the main volume. The three chapters in first part focus on key challenges concerned with access to financial services, including financial and operational deficiencies in the microfinance market, reaping the benefits from the technological revolution of retail banking, and deepening and broadening agricultural finance across Africa. The three chapters thus each cover different aspects with a different focus, ranging from an institutional approach to a focus on innovation as a driver of financial broadening to an important element of financial infrastructure to a specific sector. The second part includes the fourth chapter...

Three out of every four poor people in developing countries live in rural areas, and most of them depend directly or indirectly on agriculture for their livelihoods. In many parts of the world, women are the main farmers or producers, but their roles remain largely unrecognized. The 2008 World development report: agriculture for development highlights the vital role of agriculture in sustainable development and its importance in achieving the millennium development goal of halving by 2015 the share of people suffering from extreme poverty and hunger. Climate change and rising food prices are reminders of the need to focus on food security and agriculture for development; and the material presented in the gender in agriculture sourcebook suggests that accounting for the different roles of women and men and gender equality in access to resources and opportunities is a necessary condition for doing so. This sourcebook is a particularly timely resource. It combines descriptive accounts of national and international experience in investing in agriculture with practical operational guidance on to how to design agriculture for development strategies that capitalize effectively on the unique properties of agricultural growth and rural development involving women and men as a high-impact source of poverty reduction. It looks at gender equality and women's empowerment...

The rural space is home to 53 percent of Nigeria's population and more than 70 percent of its poor. While it is well understood in Nigeria that financial exclusion of the rural population stunts development, still fewer than 2 percent of rural households have access to any sort of institutional finance. Access to financial services is a key ingredient to rural development: it increases incomes through productive investment, helps create employment opportunities, facilitates investments in health and education, and reduces the vulnerability of the poor by helping them to smooth their income patterns over time. A lack of rural access to financial services not only retards rural economic growth, but also increases poverty and inequality. While Nigeria's own long history with rural finance shows a clear appreciation for the importance of rural access, the persistent absence of sustainable access yields important lessons for the future.

Access to financing is now widely acknowledged as a path to meaningful economic inclusion and reduction in poverty. Policy efforts to increase access to finance in Pakistan have taken time to bear fruit, but now access is indeed expanding quickly in certain financial sectors (microfinance, remittances), albeit from a very low base. Nevertheless, policy measures cannot single-handedly increase financial access; financial institutions' willingness to expand access in Pakistan has been stinted by slow technologic advances, weak legal foundations, and unsuitable financial processes and products. Poor socioeconomic conditions, gender bias, and low levels of basic education and financial literacy remain barriers, but perhaps the single strongest driver of low demand for financial access has been income. The primary purpose of this study is to measure and describe the state of financial service provision to underserved segments of the market in Pakistan, particularly those with low incomes and small enterprises, and to identify ways to improve investment and create inclusive markets that meet the needs of underserved people and enterprises.

The group of 20 (G-20) recognizes data and measurement as an essential foundation for advancing financial inclusion at a global level. The data and measurement sub-group, in its first year, was tasked to identify the existing financial inclusion data landscape, to assess the data gaps, to develop key performance indicators, and to lay out the foundations for the framing of financial inclusion target setting approaches. The purpose of this report, prepared for the global partnership for financial inclusion (GPFI), is to highlight the key findings and recommendations of the data and measurement sub-group during its first year, provide input for a roadmap for the GPFI's work plan for the coming year, and to present key policy recommendations for consideration by the G-20 policy makers for the Cannes summit in November 2011. The policy recommendations presented are relevant at the global level, including both G-20 and non-G-20 countries. The GPFI holds the potential for impact on two levels: (i) incorporating guidance on measurement frameworks and prioritizations of targets through GPFI country-level pilots; and (ii) aligning on the roadmap and determining a toolkit for formulating country level targets or goals to help - operationalize GPFI's universal access vision.

Uma das conseqüências da crise fiscal do Estado na década 1980 foi a queda dos recursos destinados ao financiamento agrícola no Brasil. Nesse contexto, mecanismos privados de crédito foram criados, com o objetivo de atender a demanda crescente do setor, que se desenvolveu fortemente a partir do final da década de 1970 no país. Esses mecanismos estiveram relacionados à própria evolução e consolidação dos Complexos Agroindustriais, e contaram com a atuação das empresas fornecedoras de insumos, tradings, agroindústrias e exportadores como agentes na concessão de crédito aos produtores. Assim, ao lado dos mecanismos de crédito oficial (que envolvem bancos e cooperativas de crédito), fortaleceram-se mecanismos de crédito não-oficial para o financiamento da agricultura, especialmente da produção de grãos no Centro-Oeste do Brasil, onde houve maior crescimento da área cultivada a partir desse período. O primeiro objetivo desse trabalho é explicar os modelos de financiamento de custeio dos produtores de grãos no Brasil, tanto os modelos de crédito oficial - que funcionam sob a égide do Sistema Nacional de Crédito Rural - SNCR -, quanto os modelos de crédito não-oficial, em que os agentes concedentes de crédito são trading e os fornecedores de insumos. O segundo objetivo é demonstrar os modelos de crédito predominantes para o financiamento da produção de grãos nas duas maiores regiões produtoras do país...