INTRODUCTION

Lack of knowledge, skills and appropriate capital are among the challenges that are faced by Small scale farmers in the rural areas in Africa. These rural farmers therefore lack the capacity to make their farming business as efficient as possible and hence suffer economically. Organizations and institutions including microfinance have come to solve farmers’ problems but still farmers experience the challenges because they have no voice in these organizations as well as in the interventions that are designed to solve their problems. To access finances, most microfinance institutions use farm records as collateral and individual farmers in a stable farmer group as granters. This 5 days course sought to empower participants with knowledge on process of accessing rural finance.

DURATION

5 days

WHO SHOULD ATTEND

• Stakeholders in agriculture and agribusiness
• Farmer based groups;
• Food processors;
• Traders and intermediaries;
• Production Managers

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Upon completion of the course, participants will:

• Understand the special challenges of rural areas that are associated with rural and agricultural credit.
• Understand of the fundamental issues of rural finance.
• Be familiar with several innovative models and alternate ways of offering rural finance services.
• Gain skills in conducting seasonality analysis, preparing cash flows, assessing risk and appraising loans.
• Develop an understanding of new and innovative loan products and savings approaches for agriculture and rural areas.
• Gain awareness of sources and reference links to further information and support for addressing future challenges in the application of financial services in rural areas.
• Understand the importance of farm record keeping and farmer groups engagement to microfinance in the rural setting
• Understand the impact of smallholder agricultural marketing and the cost benefit analysis at farm level
• Appreciate the importance of crop and livestock insurance.

TOPICS TO BE COVERED

Module 1

• Rural financial services
• Requirements from microfinances for credit to farmers.
• Linking farm record keeping to microfinancing

Module 2

• Sustainable farmer groups with microfinancing
• Agriculture value chain financing
• Smallholder farm produce marketing.
• The role of markets in rural and agriculture financing.

Module 3

• The risk of financing farmers can be mitigated
• Bundling farm financing with other linked services.
• Crowding in key players in farm financing.

Module 4

• Evaluating a cost benefit analysis from farm productions.
• Harnessing the commercialization aspect among smallholder farmers.
• Tradeoff in farming.
• Agriculture insurance to cushion the farmer against crop yield loss

Module 5

• The impact of agriculture financing on poverty reduction and rural development.
• The effect of farm credit on increasing agricultural production and farm efficiency.
• Financial innovations to boost the uptake and use of farm credit.

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TRAINING CUSTOMIZATION

This training can also be customized for your institution upon request. You can also have it delivered your preferred location. For further inquiries, please contact us through Mobile: +254 732 776 700 or +254 759 285 295. You can also email us on: training@fineresultsresearch.org

REQUIREMENTS

Participants should be reasonably proficient in English.  During the trainings, participants should come with their own laptops.

TRAINING FEE

The course fee covers the course tuition, training materials, two break refreshments, lunch, and study visits.

ACCOMMODATION

Accommodation is arranged upon request. For reservations contact us through Mobile: +254 732 776 700/+254 759 285 295 or Email: training@fineresultsresearch.org

PAYMENT

Payment should be transferred to FineResults Research Limited bank before commencement of training. Send proof of payment through the email: training@fineresultsresearch.org

CANCELLATION POLICY

• All requests for cancellations must be received in writing.
• Changes will become effective on the date of written confirmation being received.