The war in Ukraine has supercharged the longer-term trends driving up poverty and hunger, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change. Agri-SMEs are under unprecedented pressure, with many scaling back their operations, raising prices for consumers or cutting costs to maintain cash flow and margins. Now more than ever, agri-SMEs need capital for their businesses to survive.

This learning brief summarizes the challenges, opportunities, and responses of agri-SMEs, financiers and development partners to the current food crisis, as described in our recent learning event hosted on 06 July 2022.  It details the recent innovations undertaken by agri-preneurs, trends in lending to the agriculture sector among financial service providers, and recommendations for development actors to more effectively mobilize private financing for agri-SMEs during times of crisis.