FORBES — Can Silicon Valley’s Big Bet On Agriculture Help Small-Scale Farmers In Developing Countries?
A lack of reliable information is among the most frustrating obstacles to unlocking the potential of agriculture. But as investment in AgTech heats up, what value does big data offer small-scale farmers at the end of dirt roads in the hardest-to-serve markets on earth?
A lack of reliable information is among the most frustrating obstacles to unlocking the potential of agriculture. But as investment in AgTech heats up, what value does big data offer small-scale farmers at the end of dirt roads in the hardest-to-serve markets on earth?
Root Capital invests in women by investing in agricultural businesses that promote gender-inclusive practices. This report presents an update on our Women in Agriculture Initiative (WAI), through which we study the roles played by women across our value chains and the barriers they face to full participation, and identify opportunities to deepen our clients’ impacts on women.
More than two years after the launch of the Coffee Farmer Resilience Initiative, we share initial learning and recommendations on how to design financial products and services for long-term farm renovation. Discover how leading coffee companies—along with the public sector, private foundations, and impact investors—are using a blend of capital to invest in the future of coffee.
We detail the role that rural businesses can play in helping smallholder producers improve resilience. By providing farmers with the knowledge and tools to improve their agricultural practices and productivity, they can contribute to more stable and prosperous farmer livelihoods, help mitigate climate change, and create shared value for entire supply chains.
Too often, vital client voices are not always heard above the hype, or through the hyperness of entrepreneurial instincts and enterprise building. How can entrepreneurs cultivate and codify a culture of empathy and understanding and always put clients at front and center?
Agriculture is the single largest employer among developing countries, and the artisan sector is the second. The families whose livelihoods are dependent on farming are often the same families who earn income from selling handcrafted products and artwork in the off-season.
Too often, data collection for impact evaluations, regardless of the intent, feels extractive to the research participants. The purpose of this working paper is to advance conversations and collaborations about how to create value for disadvantaged populations through the very act of evaluating the impact of programs and services on those populations.
Root Capital’s Women in Agriculture Initiative (WAI) seeks to promote greater economic opportunity for women by supporting small and growing businesses with access to credit and financial training and by promoting gender-inclusive practices. In 2014, we extended the reach of our financial products and services, increasing the number of gender-inclusive clients in Africa and Latin America.
An estimated 75 percent of Rwanda’s 12 million people live in rural areas, and a majority of them are subsistence farmers. These hardworking men and women cultivate small plots of land to meet their own food needs and, when possible, sell surpluses to earn income. For them and for their country, most opportunities for a better future originate in the soil.
Drawing from findings from four individual studies of coffee cooperatives in Guatemala, this "cluster study" explores whether Root Capital’s financing and training enable our clients to increase their impacts—and if so, to what extent.
