Smallholder farmers in low- and middle-income countries have limited access to finance, due to the paucity of banks and other financial institutions in rural areas. As a result, banks and other formal financial institutions tend not to know much about farming as a business, and therefore they hesitate to extend credit to farmers. Such reluctance […]
BLOG – Bridging the smallholder finance gap: Collaborative research with WeGro in Bangladesh
Farmers in many low- and middle-income countries face a major financial gap, with available resources often insufficient to enable them to increase production—and putting many higher-value products with the greatest potential to increase incomes out of reach. Yet banks and other formal financial institutions shy away from lending to smallholder farmers. There are several reasons […]
Nov 28: Upgrading aquaculture value chains through smallholder clusters: Reflections on emerging experience from Bangladesh
This session provides an opportunity to reflect on the potential of group-based interventions to facilitate upgrading by shrimp smallholders, and the challenges associated with doing so. Shrimp is Bangladesh’s main agricultural export and a substantial contributor to the economy of southern Bangladesh, but the sector has a checkered history; beset by struggles over land and […]
Can diverse farming systems enhance nutrition-sensitive agriculture?: Food and Agriculture Research Discussion Forum
Background On April 1, 2023, the Food and Agriculture Research Discussion Forum (FARDF) convened a meeting to discuss Jaya Jumrani's research, “Agricultural Production Diversity and Women's Nutrition: Evidence from Rural Bangladesh,” which analyzed data from IFPRI's Bangladesh Integrated Household Survey (BIHS). Among other points, this research concluded that, while poverty reduction and rice production have improved, […]
Evaluating Microequity Models for Financing Livestock Fattening in Bangladesh
Can profit-sharing be the key to unlocking the potential of small-scale livestock farmers in Bangladesh? Researchers from IFPRI and the University of Oxford are partnering with WeGro to evaluate a new model that could provide much-needed income and well-being benefits to marginalized cattle farmers in the country.