Posted on January, 30, 2019 at 10:05 am
By FIDELIS LIMISI
A Sh500 million initiative to boost digitisation of small-scale farming was yesterday launched.
The Agrifin Digital Farmer project will support the expansion of high-impact, digitally enabled services of at least one million farmers from Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Nigeria in two years. It is being funded by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The programme seeks to help small-holder farmers who lack access to affordable, accessible, demand-driven financial products and services.
Small-holder farmers are the most under-served group in the world by financial services. Women and youth are particularly disadvantaged.
Investment in this sector is critical, as economic growth from agriculture is at least twice as effective in reducing poverty as growth in other sectors.
The Agrifin Accelerate programme employs a market facilitation and technical assistance model to accelerate development of digitally enabled products and services for small-holders. It works with other ecosystem actors committed to serve farmers.
Source: The Star