Unlocking Smallholder Assets: Warehouse Receipts and ICT
Event Information
Many farmers are severely constrained in crop production by a lack of access to credit. Warehouse receipts can provide the collateral needed for short-term loans, allowing farmers to store their harvests and fetch higher prices at more optimal selling times.
This month's Ag Sector Council seminar will address the evolving role of information and communications technology (ICT) and inventory credit, as manifested through warehouse receipts and e-warehouse systems. The seminar serves as a follow-up to “Warehouse Receipts for Food Security: Benefits and Challenges”—the November 2011 Ag Sector Council event—and incorporates new learning in this area from the ICT perspective.
Panelists from USAID and the Grameen Foundation will explore the potential of warehouse receipts as a financial tool to help poor farmers. Judy Payne (USAID/BFS) will discuss how ICT can be used to strengthen collateral systems, extension services, and relationships between poor smallholder farmers and agribusinesses. Scott Heller (USAID/DCA) will provide an overview of warehouse receipt systems and their evolution over the past several years, highlighting DCA's role in agricultural finance. Lastly, Erin Connor (Grameen Foundation) will showcase an e-warehouse pilot project that aims to help smallholder farmers in Kenya optimize the income generated from their crop yields. The project, implemented in collaboration with Farm Concern International (FCI) with support from USAID, is leveraging mobile technology to provide farmers with access to finance, markets, and information on grain harvesting and storage.
Speakers
Judy Payne
USAID Bureau for Food Security
Judy Payne is the ICT Advisor for Agriculture in the USAID's Bureau of Food Security where she helps USAID Missions and projects use information and communications technologies (ICT) to increase their scale and impact in agriculture development. Her work includes helping USAID find ways to use ICT-enabled approaches to increase the scale of agriculture projects in financially sustainable ways. These approaches include using mobile phone applications, low-cost video, radio, and television, among others, to help strengthen agriculture extension services through improved access to financial services, weather updates, and mobile financial services; the availability of up-to-date market price information, and assistance to large buyers dealing with thousands of producers. Payne manages the mFarmer Initiative, a partnership between USAID and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, implemented by GSMA (www.gsma.com/mfarmer) and the the Connected Farmer Alliance.
Erin Connor
Grameen Foundation
Erin Connor is the Kenya Country Manager for the Grameen Foundation (GF). Since 2011, she has overseen GF’s programs in Financial Services, and Health and Agriculture, programs which leverage mobile technology to increase access to financial and information services among the poor. Connor joined GF in 2005, and during that time, has managed programs and partnerships across Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa. The Grameen Foundation, with support from USAID, and in collaboration with Farm Concern International (FCI), is implementing an e-Warehouse pilot project to help smallholder farmers in Kenya optimize the income generated from their crop yields. The project is leveraging mobile technology to provide farmers with access to finance, markets, and information on grain harvesting and storage.
Scott Haller
USAID Development Credit Authority
Scott Haller works at the USAID Development Credit Authority (DCA) as the Portfolio Manager for East and Southern Africa, where he monitors small and medium enterprise and agriculture loan guarantees in 14 countries across the region. Before working with USAID/DCA, he worked as an implementer for food security programs in Liberia, and as a Peace Corps volunteer in Micronesia, where he worked in small business development and microfinance. Haller earned his BS in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and his MA in International Development from the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver.
Event Registration Information
Theme Month Event
Online and In-person Event
United States
