28 May 2020

The pandemic has disrupted agri-food value chains in Africa. To ensure an efficient food supply chain, Rabobank, Rabo Foundation, Farm to Market Alliance (FtMA), SNV and Agri-wallet teamed up to support Kenyan farmers. This support takes the pressure off those who are affected most by the COVID-19.

Keeping the food chain afloat
Farmers produce less due to lack of access to inputs, shortage of credit and disruptions in logistics. Usually, food supply chains run smoothly because short-term loans allow farmers, agro-dealers and small aggregators to pay for inputs and produce before on-selling it. In the current situation operations have slowed down as unfortunately credit is running out and loans cannot be extended. We aim to maintain food productivity by offering not only financial support but also new digital ways of working.

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Agri-wallet’s digital finance solution for agricultural supply chains during covid-19

Combining expertise for optimal assistance
To help farmers continue their work and play their essential part in the agri-food chain, we decided to team up:

  • Agri-wallet contributes with an innovative digital fintech platform
  • Rabobank offers financial expertise
  • Rabo Foundation provides soft loans to eligible smallholder farmers
  • SNV provides technical assistance
  • FtMA ensures that all areas of expertise come together

Digital and financial support
By maintaining food productivity of farmers we contribute to ensuring food security in Kenya. We focus on supporting the food supply chains financially as well as digitally:

  • by targeting funds for agri-finance to ensure liquidity in the food supply chain
  • by providing inputs for production of crops and livestock
  • by promoting the use of digital mobile service to disburse funds and share information
  • by facilitating access to markets in places where access is restricted

The objective of the financial support is to maintain food productivity of selected farmers and by doing so, contribute to the food security in Kenya. By introducing and improving digital ways of working, food value chains may even emerge from this pandemic stronger, more secure and better funded than before.

Want to know more or contribute yourself?
This corona response is implemented through our existing infrastructure. It can be expanded in collaboration with public and private partners. For more information contact Ad Rietberg, he will gladly tell you more: arietberg@agri-wallet.com

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Rabobank & Rabo Foundation
Madelon Pfeiffer, Region Manager Africa at Rabo Foundation: ‘Our risk sharing agri-finance helps Kenyan smallholder farmers ease their financial burden in these difficult times.’

David Gerbrands, Global head agri and banking advisory services at Rabobank: ‘Digital finance can be part of the solution to the challenges faces by farmers and agri-food SME’s during the pandemic.’

Rabobank is a cooperative bank with strong roots in agriculture and a leading bank in the Food and Agriculture sector. Rabobank is committed to promote development of agricultural sector in emerging markets, especially through finance, capacity building knowledge sharing, cooperative development and partial risk coverage through the Rabo Foundation.

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Farm to Market Alliance (FtMA)
Adrian van der Knaap, Managing Director at Farm to Market Alliance (FtMA): ‘While the Covid-19 situation is taking a heavy toll on the Kenyan economy, it is now more than ever essential for the country to maintain national production capacities of main crops and commodities. We encourage the Kenyan Government and donors to support and stimulate food production and strengthen agricultural value chains to protect both the agri-economy and national food security.‘

The Farm to Market Alliance (FtMA) helps smallholder farmers receive relevant information, investment and support from seed to market, so they can produce and sell food products and increase their income. FtMA is a public-private sector consortium of six agri-focused organizations formed to make markets work better for farmers. The consortium consists of WFP, Rabobank, AGRA, Bayer, Syngenta and Yara

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Agri-wallet
Faith Mulwa, Country Manager at Agri-wallet Kenya: ‘Digital services on mobile phones, like our Agri-wallet, can quickly support farmers during lockdowns and solve bottlenecks in supply chains caused by the pandemic.’

Agri-wallet is a fintech platform to distribute easy and affordable agri-finance to farmers and agri-food businesses. Agri-wallet provides total supply chain finance by earmarking funds and reducing risks for banks and lenders. This unlocks investments and promotes sustainable agri-food value chains.

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SNV
Jeen Koostra, Country Director at SNV Kenya: ‘The corona pandemic could destroy years of development in agri-food systems, so an urgent but well-crafted response is needed to ensure food security in Kenya.’

SNV is a not-for-profit international development organisation that makes a lasting difference in the lives of people living in poverty by helping them raise incomes and access basic services. We focus on only three sectors (Agriculture, WASH and Energy) and have a long-term, local presence in over 25 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Our team of more than 1,300 staff is the backbone of SNV. SNV has been active in Kenya since 1967.

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