Publication database

The significance of strengthening economic growth and sustainable development through financial inclusion is critical for the Asia-Pacific region. Harnessing the advent of digital technology to enable financial inclusion is one of the most promising opportunities to bring millions of unserved and underserved people across the region into the formal financial sector. This is especially true for people who are living at the base of the economic pyramid (BoEP) and for women, who are disproportionately marginalized.

However, while the promise of digital finance is appealing, the introduction of digital services does not solve many of the root causes of financial exclusion and also creates new challenges for those at the BoEP. This policy guidebook aims to support the region’s policy makers and regulators to capitalize on the opportunity to harness digital technology as an effective means to advance financial inclusion and enhance the wellbeing of those at the BoEP, including women.

This guide lists digital tools that deliver remote data collection, information, or training for farmers and farmer organizations. It assesses them on five criteria: demand, value addition, costs, transcending inefficiencies, and interoperability. 

This document is a strategic guidebook developed by Argidius Foundation and Dalberg Advisors to support business development services (BDS) providers to successfully adopt digital practices and tools. It explores current practices and opportunities across the landscape to guide BDS providers in using digital technologies to provide services to entrepreneurs in an effective and inclusive way.

This toolbox has been developed for readers among donors, policy makers and the agribusiness who have already understood the importance of ICT for agriculture in general and for contract farming in particular. The document gives an overview of ICT related tools and their possible fields of application in contract farming. It shows their long-term financial benefits and gives advice for the selection and prioritization of suitable tools depending on the specific criteria of a given contract scheme, such as its size, business type, geographical setting and the type of production.