Smallholder farmers (SHFs) have the potential to play an ever increasing role in feeding the world through sustainable supply of key agricultural commodities. However, most smallholders lack their own funds to invest in their farms to improve productivity and connect to markets. Without inclusive market systems, smallholders must rely on their own limited savings to invest in their farm, education, and other household needs, which contributes to lower productivity, persistent income inequality, and slower economic growth.

The goal of this Guide is to identify specific challenges in value chains that can be addressed by improved payments or financial services, and then to identify corresponding DFS solutions to these specific challenges, with the aim of improving the ability of value chains to increase farmer incomes. In doing so, it is possible to increase farmer household access to a transaction account that builds household resiliency and offers access to payments and financial services long after an aid project or intervention is complete.

Sound structural design is as important to portals as it is to buildings. The interface is a user’s introduction to the portal. It is also the key to accessing the content and services provided by the portal. As we design and deploy portals we should consider how to organize information and applications in a way that makes sense to users. This of course is a problem for several reasons. First, there are many users and their needs vary. Second, how even a single user uses the portal depends on the task he or she is trying to accomplish. If performing a routine task, for example, entering a time card, the user will want rapid access to the application. This is no place for needless clicks through a hierarchical set of applications. On the other hand, if the user is researching a new product line, he or she will want to browse through related content, follow promising paths of related information, and quickly narrow the search in response to hunches about new angles on the problem. The only way to meet these needs is to provide multiple ways to navigate and to keep the overall organization consistent.

Content within pages should follow a pattern. The three-panel model balances formal structure with flexible organization of content. Landmarks, activ links, and other navigation techniques will help users quickly move around within the portal.

Delivering mobile-enabled agricultural services (‘mAgri services’) to women in developing countries is a major market opportunity for the mobile industry that also offers substantial social benefits. The mAgri services market is nascent but growing—GSMA has tracked 106 active, global deployments by mobile network operators (MNOs) and third party providers. Women working in agriculture account for an estimated 556 million potential users globally,2 but are underserved as a unique customer segment.

For agricultural development practitioners, social media tools can expand the reach of your ommunity, strengthen partner relationships, support programmatic initiatives, and provide a vital  eans to increase the visibility of your public profile and engagement. 

A handbook by USAID

A toolkit for practitioners

Using low-cost videos within your agricultural development project can be an effective way for increasing the scale of your activities by leveraging the expertise of local experts and farmers for a broader audience. Since the videos may be created in the field by your staff, the cost will be lower than professionally produced videos, and the turnaround time from concept to final product will likely be much faster. Given the cost and time benefits, you will also likely be able to create many more videos than you would be able to do otherwise.