This project seeks to understand the potential for digital financial services (DFS) to help improve financial access among the agricultural midstream—which includes traders, transporters, processors, wholesalers, and other related businesses. While academics, development practitioners, and others have been placing increased attention on the agricultural midstream, little is known about their present financial needs. Improving the function of the agricultural midstream can potentially increase employment creation while also improving incomes of farmers upstream and offering more affordable prices to consumers downstream.
A first phase of this project included two components. First, the research team conducted consultations with a wide range of academic and practitioner experts to be able to better characterize needs in the sector, completed a critical review of contributions to the existing academic and policy literature, and reanalyzed some existing data sources to learn more about the agricultural midstream. In the second component the project focused on two countries, Uganda and Bangladesh. The research team developed an innovative methodology to sample midstream actors with tailored surveys aimed to understand their financial capabilities and constraints.
A second phase of this project is now underway. Scoping work will be conducted in Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, and Tanzania. Ultimately the research team will choose two countries within which to refine the sampling methodology and employ another set of midstream surveys with a focus on understanding financial needs and barriers to uptake of digital financial services.
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