1 Increasing the pipeline of investment-ready agribusinesses: Recommendations
To increase the pipeline of investment-ready agribusinesses, donors should:
1.1 Support training and capacity development among grantees to improve their ability to work with data and analytics and to undertake rapid and cost-effective impact assessments.
1.2 Advance the case for inclusive business support, ensuring the evidence base is strengthened through the use of consistent ‘outcome level’ economic indicators so that development institutions can compare across approaches and learn from different models. Inclusive business support seeks to involve more small-scale producers in supply chains.
1.3 Support training and capacity development among grantees to harmonize technical assistance taxonomies, differentiating core from inclusive business support. This will enable industry practitioners and development finance Institutions to document, compare and evaluate approaches to inclusive technical assistance.
Read the report
A Review of Inclusive Technical Assistance in Agriculture Deployed by Development Finance Institutions [26 pages] An evaluation of the demand for and supply of inclusive technical assistance in agriculture by donors and other development finance partners.
Watch the video
Improve the performance of agricultural investments through legal empowerment of farmers [58 minutes] Convincing evidence from Africa and Asia on using legal empowerment as a route to fewer disruptions to supply chains and increased brand equity through enhanced reputation.
To increase the pipeline of investment-ready agribusinesses, donors should also:
1.4 Incentivize upstream inclusive technical assistance to de-risk investments and create a pipeline of investible smallholder-sourcing enterprises for investors.
1.5 Continue promoting the development of impact measurement mechanisms and methodologies to build a more nuanced understanding of impact investment and how it can be implemented most effectively.
1.6 Provide subsidies to support investments with lower returns and longer repayment periods to help increase the pipeline of investment-ready agribusinesses.
Read the report
Sourcing from smallholders: Complex challenge or commercial opportunity? Perspectives from investors and agribusinesses [56 pages] examines how smallholders are viewed by investors, the funding flowing to smallholder-facing businesses and investor perspectives on these enterprises.
Watch the video
5 routes to profitable sourcing from smallholder farmers: Investor perspectives on the deal [59-minutes] covers the need for trust, how to structure a deal using blended finance to de-risk agri-SME investments and insights from the CASA.
Or read: the one-page summary of the video.
To increase the pipeline of investment-ready agribusinesses, donors should also:
1.7 Along with investors, develop a more sophisticated view of the market and shared learning agenda to deliver a more pluralistic funding landscape of blended finance. This will offer greater efficiency and effectiveness than current approaches.
1.8 Together with development and international finance institutions, multilateral banks and public development banks, become more transparent and collaborative, and committed to smarter subsidies. Participation in new fora to support peer learning can facilitate co-investment mandates across institutional divides.
1.9 International donors need to develop long-term strategies utilizing short-term lending to establish where subsidies are needed and where they can be progressively scaled back to support long-term market-making objectives.
Increasing the pipeline of investment-ready agribusinesses reducing food loss, donors should increase finance through tailored products and risk-sharing by:
1.10 Supporting the design and de-risk asset financing products which match the profile of food loss technologies
1.11 Enabling results-based finance schemes to introduce cooling as service model in harder to reach areas
1.12 Encouraging direct investment from DFIs into manufacturing
Read the report
State of agri-SME sector – Bridging the finance gap [67 pages] breaks down the market in a comprehensive and holistic way to show where finance is specifically flowing and recommends ways to address the current agri-SME finance gap.
Watch the video
The state of the agri-SME sector – bridging the finance gap [52-minutes] covers the current state of the sector and sets out four key priorities to address the existing finance gap.
Or read: the one-page summary of the video
Read the report
Opportunities and drivers for SME agribusinesses to reduce food loss in Africa and Asia [31 pages]
Updated November 2023
Summary of recommendations for donors