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Emerging Lessons in Agricultural Microfinance
selected case studies - English

Emerging Lessons in Agricultural Microfinance

Topic :

This publication is the result of a research conducted by CGAP with funding from IFAD on emerging lessons in agricultural microfinance. Based on desk reviews, consultant site visits and stakeholder consultation, CGAP identified a shortlist of institutions actively engaged in agricultural finance that showed the potential to achieve scale and sustainability. Several case studies were selected from this shortlist and are presented in the present publication.

These case studies present promising approaches to the sustainable provision of financial services to poor rural households reliant on agriculture. The five institutions or projects highlighted in the studies are:

  1. Confianza, Peru;
  2. Bai Tushum Financial Foundation (Bai Tushum), Kyrgyzstan;
  3. Caja Los Andes (CLA), Bolivia;
  4. Equity Bank, Limited (Equity), Kenya; and
  5. Cooperative League of the USA (CLUSA), Mozambique.

CGAP selected these cases on the basis of the following criteria:

  • the importance of agricultural lending to the overall portfolio and mission of the microfinance provider;
  • the medium-term sustainability of the agricultural lending activities (and institutional ability to survive difficult years caused by weather, price movements, or government policies);
  • potential for replication or scale;
  • ability to serve as an illustration of a particular institutional or methodological approach to agricultural microfinance; and
  • geographic distribution.

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