About the event

About

Palladium recently conducted a study entitled “A Paradigm Shift in Lending to Smallholder Farmers: The Potential of Geomapping Technology,” which explores the viability of geomapping as a tool to cost-effectively assess smallholder farmer credit risk and in turn expand access to affordable finance. Collecting geomapping data on small farmers allows intermediaries like financial institutions, cooperatives or agribusinesses to better assess and monitor risks related to location and generates value across the ecosystem by providing valuable information to financial institutions and offering digital financial services directly to small farmers.  Geomapping tech providers connect farmers to input suppliers and enable buyers to more accurately forecast harvests. Despite the value add that geomapping tech providers’ offer to small farmers, their commercial viability depends on intermediaries, not farmers, since these larger players pay for their services. While there is growing evidence of geomapping’s ability to improve access to finance for small farmers, scaling this technology to reach more of them remains difficult as tech providers face capital and skills constraints.    Building off the study, Palladium seeks to address these constraints to create a new organizational model of finance for small-scale farmers. Palladium is setting up a financing and technical assistance (TA) facility (“The Facility”) aimed at closing the smallholder farmer financing gap by using geomapping and other digital technologies to de-risk lending to the sector and create a positive feedback loop with the power to improve the livelihoods of small-scale farmers. The Facility plans to foster this new organizational model by:

Providing intermediaries with concessionary capital and TA to adopt technology that allows them to implement geomapping and related digital services, gather enhanced data for credit analysis and digitize financial transactions. Offering financing and TA to technology providers enabling them to expand services and better target customers. Facilitating TA activities where intermediaries can convene with technology providers to learn how to close the small-scale farmer credit analysis gap using technology. In this session, Palladium will discuss the determinants and business models of successful geomapping tech providers, areas for Facility collaboration with agri-SMEs, and the role of blended capital in establishing a new organizational model for smallholder farmer finance. Palladium hopes to open a dialogue centred on the following key questions:

  1. What is the best way to successfully implement this Facility given that we know that smallholder farmers and agri-SMEs in emerging markets have low rates of digital connectivity and lack digital infrastructure?
  2. In your experience, where is the biggest skills or training need for financial institutions regarding data collection, processing and credit analysis of small-scale farmers?
  3. How can the Facility most effectively facilitate linkages between agri-SMEs and financial institutions to extend financing to smallholder farmers in their supply chains?

Speakers

Erin Leyson, Senior Associate in Commercial Facilities for Natural Resource Systems, Palladium

Erin is lead author for the report, ‘A Paradigm Shift in Lending to Smallholder Farmers: The Potential of Geomapping Technology’.  At Palladium, Erin collaborates with executives from diverse industries to formulate strategies for sustainable social and economic impact. Previously, she worked in the private and non-profit sectors with a focus on political and economic development projects in the US and Mexico. Her experience includes consulting for McKinsey & Company as well as founding Incuba ONG, a Mexico City-based consultancy that provides strategic planning services to multilateral organizations, private foundations, and non-profits in Latin America. Erin holds a BA from Duke University and an MPA from Columbia University.

Eduardo Tugendhat, Director of Commercial Facilities for Natural Resource Systems, Palladium

Throughout his 46-year career, Eduardo has designed and executed market-led approaches to accelerate inclusive economic growth, improve smallholder livelihoods and generate employment opportunities around the world. Eduardo is a recognized expert in the areas of inclusive supply chain solutions and a seasoned professional at crafting and managing public-private alliances. He has worked in a total of 64 countries generating private sector investments and transforming value chains across industries ranging from agriculture to financial services. Eduardo was co-founder and CEO of CARANA Corporation, now part of Palladium. He holds a BA from Harvard University and an MA from the University of Wisconsin.

 

Event Details:

Event dates: Jun 21, 2022, 2:00 PM GMT+2 – Jun 22, 2022, 3:00 PM GMT+2

Location: Zoom

Organizer: SAFIN