In 2018, USAID’s Bureau for Food Security hosted a suite of five webinars designed to increase awareness of Agency tools and strategies for catalyzing finance in the agriculture sector.

A well-functioning financial system that supports agricultural market growth is a fundamental building block that undergirds the ability of the private sector to lead development outcomes and contribute to a country’s path to self-reliance. Recognizing the importance of the financial sector, the Global Food Security Strategy places an increased focus on access to finance for all actors in agricultural value chains, from individual households and small-scale producers, to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and even larger firms. Within this ecosystem, agricultural SMEs are critical conduits that can transform agriculture from a survival strategy into a viable, enterprise-led livelihood. However, the vast majority of agricultural SMEs fall into the “missing middle” (roughly defined as financing needs of $25k-$250k), the gap between microfinance and commercial banking that is one of the last frontiers in financial inclusion. Few investors are willing to accept low returns and invest in agricultural SMEs that are riskier, more expensive to monitor, and harder to implement.

So, what practical strategies and tools are available to us to encourage greater investment to this challenging sector? Find out more of some of USAID’s tools and strategies in the webinar recordings on this page.

• Mobilizing Capital for Agricultural Development with the Development Credit Authority – this training explains how the DCA works, when it is best employed, what its five principal guarantee products are and how they can be utilized in agricultural interventions.
• Investing in agribusinesses: What makes an agribusiness attractive from an investor’s perspective? – this webinar discusses the fundamentals of how investors balance risk, cost and return in evaluating agribusinesses and their financial positions, as well as key financial documents and ratios.
• How to engage with finance providers on agricultural programs – this training reviews the role of different types of finance providers in agricultural finance programming and how USAID can select the appropriate financial partner for a given intervention.
• How to use agricultural finance interventions to drive youth employment – this training covers the pressing global issue of youth under- and unemployment, the key barriers to youth employment in agriculture, how agricultural finance can address these issues and how USAID mission staff can go about designing impactful interventions for youth.