Insights
Agricultural Finance
Agri-Finance Ecosystem
Isidro targets businesses with a financing gap; they are often smaller, engaged in diverse value chains, and have mid- to long-term financing needs.
Meet a client: Alianza S.A.
Meet Alianza S.A., one of a handful of farmer-run, organic macadamia enterprises in the world. With our support, Alianza is building a processing plant to produce a higher-value product.
The Unique Challenges of investing in Agriculture
What people may not fully appreciate is that beyond producing food, the agricultural sector in most countries also plays a central role in rural development, social stability, and environmental conservation. Low investment in this sector is not in the interest of the common good. So, let’s explore in greater detail what makes investing in agriculture unique but also risky.
Nature-positive Investing
The Intimate Relationship Between Farmers, The Land And Climate
Nature-positive investments in farm renovation and rehabilitation have the potential to improve farmer productivity and income, diversify agroforestry systems and improve watershed management, limit agricultural expansion into primary forest, and strengthen rural businesses and cooperatives.
Analyzing Farm Profitability: Land Equivalency Ratio and Gross Profit
The results of the study indicate that a mixed agroforestry system, which includes coffee and macadamia, is indeed more productive (LER > 1) than either mono-crop system.
Saving Water With New Ecological Wet Mill Designs
There are potentially billions of liters that we could save in Nicaragua alone and use for drinking water or other productive purposes such as irrigating crops. In the next post, we will look at the impact of these systems on reducing the pollution generated from processing.
Insights from the Sector
Impact Investing for the Missing Middle in Agri-Finance
How an innovative stakeholder-shareholder investment model is helping smallholder farmers grow and thrive. An interesting article from our colleagues at Kampani.
Evidence Initiative for Agricultural SME Finance - Executive Summary
Expanding the knowledge base of what does and does not work for mobilizing additional capital into the sector and how to steer that capital for greatest impact will enable more strategic deployment of time and resources for donors, policymakers, and practitioners alike.
IUCN Global Standard for Nature-based Solutions
A user-friendly framework for the verification, design and scaling up of NbS
Isidro's Tools
Agroenterprise Capacity Assessment
Isidro’s proprietary baseline tool for holistically assessing Agroenterprise’s capacity, and preparedness for investment, on four levels: Asset Development, Business Management, Position in the Value Chain, and Preparation for Growth.
Livelihoods Impact Scorecard
Isidro’s tool for evaluating an enterprise’s social and environmental impact prior to the investment.