BPI Foundation mounts AgriFinancing Summit 2016

Recognizing rural enterprise development and value chain financing as a means to promote progress in the country’s agricultural sector, BPI Foundation, Inc. recently brought together key players in the agricultural value chain to co-create and support inclusive and sustainable plans for implementation at the first AgriFinancing Summit 2016.

“The AgriFinancing Summit is an excellent venue for key players from both the public and private sectors to identify a more lasting path out of poverty for small-scale farmers by using the method of design thinking to prototype viable solutions that address barriers and impediments as well as manage risks and unlock capital of the private commercial banks for this unbanked sector,” said Fidelina Corcuera, executive director, BPI Foundation.

To better grasp the risks and costs the different stakeholders face, mitigating measures they can collaborate on, and the institutional and policy reforms and support needed from both the government and the banking and financing sectors, BPI Foundation partnered with two organizations that work with two key segments toward rural enterprise development.

PinoyME and its network of partner work with marginalized farmer groups, train them in agroentrepreneurship, and provide assistance in commercializing their enterprises by forming production clusters and connecting them to the formal market economy.

It aims to empower farmers away from inefficient and unjust business and trading systems, better respond to dynamic environment and market conditions, and ultimately earn larger and more regular revenues from their yield.

Meanwhile, Grow Asia works with private companies, along with governments, NGOs and other stakeholders to help smallholder farmers improve their production and livelihood through access to information, knowledge, markets and finance.

The organization is supported by both multinational and local companies that can help facilitate market access for the yield of smallholder farmers.

By forging these public and partnerships, BPI Foundation aims for the different sectors to have a more holistic view and approach on how they can improve the enabling environment for rural enterprise development and value chain financing.