"Smallholder farmers occupy an increasingly important segment of the global agricultural value chain... These smallholders also represent stewards of natural resources that are in need of sustainable management to prevent deforestation and degradation of ecosystems.

This report identifies five primary growth pathways for deploying investment to address smallholder finance demand: (i) replicate and scale existing financing models, such as the one proven by social lenders; (ii) innovate new financial products beyond short-term export trade finance; (iii) finance out-grower schemes of multinational buyers in captive value chains; (iv) finance through alternate points of aggregation in the value chain; and (v) finance directly to farmers."