How can Agricultural Value Chain Finance (AVCF) help expand financial access for smallholder agrifood chains in Southeast Asia?

Abstract

Smallholder farmers in developing countries face several different constraints limiting their ability to reach their production potential. One such constraint is access to formal finance; smallholders and other agricultural value chain participants frequently cannot access credit necessary to invest in new crops or technologies, deal with risks and shocks, and or savings products to safely carry wealth from harvest to planting. New technologies, markets, and government priorities in several Southeast Asian countries combine to suggest new opportunities are emerging to overcome long-standing challenges to expanding agricultural finance: Those challenges include: (i) high transaction costs to financing in rural areas; (ii) managing risks unique to agriculture; and (iii) knowledge about how to deliver agriculture-based products.