Connect with:
Tuesday / May 6. 2025

logo
mobile-logo
HomePosts Tagged "International Finance Corporation (IFC)"
Agribusiness, Agro Universities, Company News, India

GAEA will help develop rural entrepreneurs to provide improved inputs and services to farmers to increase livelihoods and build climate resilience.

The Global Agri-Entrepreneurship Academy (GAEA) was officially launched by International Finance Corporation (IFC), Sustainable Agriculture Foundation International Association (SAFIA), and Corteva Agriscience. GAEA has the ambitious goal of supporting 500,000 rural entrepreneurs with training, mentoring and market linkages to become sustainable service providers to 100 million farmers across Asia, Africa, and Latin America in 10 years.

GAEA was set up to address critical challenges in smallholder farming that include lack of local and affordable access to quality inputs, technology, and modern farming know-how. Rural entrepreneurs present a way to fill these gaps, but they need targeted training and mentoring to overcome their own challenges of low managerial capacity, and limited access to knowledge, technology and financial services. GAEA is a registered not for profit foundation in Switzerland.

Simon Winter, Executive Director of SAFIA, stated “We have activated more than 23,000 rural entrepreneurs to create jobs in the villages, raise living standards, and improve farmers’ access to inputs, services and markets. Now we want to share the experience of guiding rural youth and women to become successful entrepreneurs at a much greater scale through access to our tools, methods and experience with others.”

GAEA has identified partners in Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Tanzania and Cote d’ivoire to launch the first cohort of projects. Several memorandums of understanding (MoUs) pertaining to these proposed partnerships were also signed during the launch. The launch was followed by a panel discussion on the impacts of agri-entrepreneurship on smallholder farmers.

“GAEA supports our partners and clients in implementing programs effectively without re-inventing the wheel and by making good use of GAEA’s repository of proven knowledge and resources in agri-entrepreneurship,” said Alan Johnson, Senior Operations Officer at IFC, adding, “We want to leverage existing expertise and agri-entrepreneur networks to create impact at scale.”

The three founding members signed a MoU at the event to affirm their commitment to a standardized approach to agri-entrepreneurship development and sharing lessons for long-term growth.

“Rural entrepreneurs succeed when they are equipped with strong management skills, financial discipline and access to capital,” said Anuja Kadian, Director – Government & Industry Affairs (Asia Pacific), Corteva Agriscience. “With the right training and mentorship, they can become dependable, profit-driven service providers who strengthen agri-value chains and deliver comprehensive solutions to smallholder farmers. This helps in creating an ecosystem of agri-entrepreneurs, we can bridge the gap between innovation and last-mile delivery, ensuring farmers have access to high-quality inputs, modern techniques and sustainable practices. This, in turn, drives productivity, resilience and long-term growth in rural economies.”

GAEA will help develop rural entrepreneurs to

Climate, Finance, India, Schemes - Banks, Sustainability

 The climate loan aim to promote sustainable growth, create jobs and finance green/blue projects.

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group and the largest global development institution, is partnering with Axis Bank, one of the largest private sector banks in India, to provide a $500 million loan to help develop a blue finance market and scale up financing of green projects in India.

This is IFC’s first blue investment in India and the first blue transaction by a financial institution in the country.  Blue loans are financing instruments that raise and earmark funds for investments such as water and wastewater management, reduction of marine plastic pollution, restoration of marine ecosystems, sustainable shipping, eco-friendly tourism, and offshore renewable energy.

This transaction is also the largest green financing by IFC in the country. The funding will enable Axis Bank to expand its climate finance portfolio.

With India’s rapid urbanization and economic growth, there is a substantial opportunity to enhance water and energy efficiency. The water and wastewater treatment market size were estimated at $1.6 billion as of 2022 and is expected to reach $3 billion by 2029. Additionally, the green buildings sector presents an investment opportunity of $1.4 trillion by 2030, driven by a need for sustainable infrastructure. Most of these investments need to come from the private sector to offset limited public funding.

As part of its advisory services, IFC will support Axis Bank in growing its green buildings portfolio, including for affordable housing projects and building capacity for impact reporting. Through this engagement, IFC aims to catalyse the green buildings’ market in India. IFC will also provide a performance-based incentive of up to $2.9 million from the UK-IFC Market Accelerator for Green Construction (MAGC) program aimed at supporting the design and construction of green buildings certified by IFC’s EDGE (Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies) green buildings standard.

Speaking on the occasion, Amitabh Chaudhry, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Axis Bank said, “With the increasing effects of climate change into the global ecosystem and the growing awareness of environment sustainability, it’s imperative for banks to adopt sustainable lending practices. We are excited to partner with IFC with whom we share a common vision of strengthening standards and lending practices to boost sustainable finance in India. Given Axis Bank’s focus on growing its climate and sustainable finance portfolios, along with its large size, systemic importance, and wide reach, we hope to be a strong and stable partner for IFC in the key focus area of climate finance in India.”

“We are thrilled to announce our inaugural blue loan in India, marking our largest climate finance initiative in the country to date. India serves as an exceptional testing ground for innovative approaches to climate adaptation. This loan will not only catalyse private sector investment in this emerging asset class but also direct long-term funding toward fostering a sustainable blue economy. Additionally, it aims to enhance financing for climate projects across India, with a strong emphasis on green buildings that will mitigate climate change impacts and generate jobs. Partnering with Axis Bank, a like-minded ally, we are committed to propelling India’s sustainable and inclusive growth forward,” said Makhtar Diop, Managing Director of IFC.

 The climate loan aim to promote sustainable

Agribusiness, Collaborations, Company News, Europe, Finance, Schemes - Banks

The collaboration aims to expand the regenerative agriculture transition through improved access to finance for farmers, while supporting banks to achieve their green finance goals.

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, and Danish climate fintech, Agreena, have announced a groundbreaking financial services partnership to advance sustainable farming across Eastern Europe. This first-of-its-kind collaboration aims to expand the regenerative agriculture transition through improved access to finance for farmers, while supporting banks to achieve their green finance goals.

IFC is the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in emerging markets. Agreena will be working with the institution’s Europe Sustainable Finance Project, which provides advisory services to increase the flow of climate finance towards initiatives and projects across a range of sectors, including agriculture.

The partnership aims to help banks support their agricultural customer portfolio in switching to more sustainable farm operations and unlock bank lending to farmers who can face a ‘finance gap’ in the early years of transitioning to regenerative farming. With many farm businesses operating on thin margins, the demand for new equipment and the risk of short-term production losses can make the move to regenerative agriculture challenging, despite its ability to deliver long-term social, economic, and environmental benefits.

“By partnering with Agreena, IFC is committed to accelerating the transition to regenerative agriculture in Eastern Europe,” said Liliana Pozzo, IFC Sustainable Finance Advisory Services Manager Latin America and the Caribbean and Europe. “This collaboration not only helps farmers reduce their carbon footprint and enhance biodiversity but also equips financial institutions with the tools needed to support farmers during this critical transition period.”

Financial institutions have a unique position to promote and help drive the adoption of regenerative agriculture due to the scale of their lending to farmers across Europe. In parallel, pressure is mounting to reduce so-called ‘paper decarbonisation’, the act of reducing emissions by reshuffling portfolios. Instead, banks are being asked to provide more evidence of the impact of their green lending, while also doing more to help their clients become more sustainable.

Agreena is already developing solutions for banks who are seeking to build strong sustainable finance offers in the agriculture sector. Drawing on its expertise as the developer of Europe’s largest soil carbon programme, Agreena leverages its farmer interface and advanced Measurement, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) capabilities to assist banks with granular, verified farm-level data, to support eligibility documentation for green finance offers.

“Agreena is extremely excited to embark upon this new strategic alliance with the World Bank’s IFC – it is a bold step towards a new era of regenerative agriculture finance,” said Frederik Aagaard, Chief Commercial Officer at Agreena. “The agricultural sector is one of the largest contributors to greenhouse emissions, but it can also be a leader in the fight against climate change, and banks have a key role to play in unlocking this potential. Our collaboration with IFC will enhance banks’ awareness of regenerative agriculture and soil carbon removals and support them with documentation. We also plan to explore new solutions for the market, such as carbon credits for loan repayment and green bonds,” added Aagaard.

The collaboration aims to expand the regenerative