Bridging the Gap

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Scaling and Innovation in Agriculture Webinar

On February 17, Connexus’ CEO and President Anita Campion took part in a webinar on Scaling and Innovation in Agriculture, hosted by the Committee on Sustainability Assessment (COSA). The webinar also featured COSA’s president, Daniele Giovannucci and Dr. Tom Reardon, Michigan State University Distinguished Faculty and AAEA Fellow, and one of the world’s foremost thought leaders on agrifood economic development, as well as  the upcoming  Cracking the Nut: Reinforcing Food Systems to Meet Urban Demand conference’s keynote speaker.

As a preview to the issues that will be discussed at Cracking the Nut 2017, the webinar covered a variety of topics, including how to best prepare farmers for increasingly complex requirements within supply chains, the role of finance and business, and how inclusive supply chains can help create stronger linkages and opportunities for businesses and smallholder farmers.

In discussing access to finance, Anita Campion asserted that, “What we have seen consistently is the lack of access to finance continues to be one of the most significant barriers to rural and agricultural development and so ultimately it is an important factor for food security.” She discussed the different creative approaches that have been used in agricultural finance and value chain finance to address the remaining obstacles.

Cracking the Nut is a learning event that has looked at agricultural development through different lens. Initially, the conference focused on looked at financing rural agriculture, but over the years, it has zoomed in on different issues, such as food security, climate change, and this year it will focus on urban demand, and rural-to-urban linkages.

If you missed this very interesting and timely webinar, you can listen to it here. To learn more about this subject, and here about a variety of innovations to improve the sustainability of urban markets and strengthen rural-to-urban links, register today for the Cracking the Nut 2017 conference.