User login

To share, meet and learn for sustainable cocoa

access to finance

If cocoa farmers want to increase the productivity and quality of their farms, this usually means they have to invest in their farm, both in terms of time and money. Not many banks give loans to smallholder farmers; they tend to see farmers as unbankable and tend to avoid the high transaction costs in bringing financial services to rural areas.

Increasingly, other institutions and companies become involved in financial service delivery to organized groups of farmers, e.g. they provide inputs on credits. There is still a lot to learn about what type of finance works for what type of farmer, and how the risks involved (both for the farmers and for the service provider) can be mitigated.

Food for thought

A recent initiative that aims at mitigating risks for financial institutes and farmers to access finance in rural areas is SCOPEinsight. This is an independent rating agency that assesses the business potential of farmer organizations in agriculture, dairy, forestry and aquaculture in developing countries.

Farmers & production

Recently joined experts

I have lived and worked for the last 45 years in Papua New Guinea (10) and West Africa (35 - Ivory...
Having lived and worked in Central America for seven years together with cooperatives I now work as...

Sponsors

Logo Ministry of Economic Affairs of the Netherlands

Logo Royal Tropical Institute