A guarantee fund needs to be set up to allow financial service providers to hedge their risks in the multi-stakeholder livestock value chains, according to speakers at a recent conference in Nairobi on livestock and dairy farming in Africa-Caribbean-Pacific (ACT) countries
The conference was organised by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) under the theme ‘Testing innovations in livestock and dairy value chain finance: Insights from East and Southern Africa’.
Speakers at the conference noted that the guarantee fund will ensure that defaulting on loans by smallholder farmers and small-and-medium enterprises (SME) will not cripple the financial providers - increasing their participation in livestock and dairy value chain systems.
It was also noted that development partners can facilitate the creation of commodity associations or national-level innovation platforms to allow the private sector, government and non-government agencies, including research organisations, to discuss the challenges of the industry and find out how they can partner to solve them.
Stakeholders involved in the value chains should meet and identify their joint challenges and determine how they can all contribute, each according to their capabilities, to implement strategies to develop livestock-relevant financial products and services, according to the event speakers.
Mwangi Mumero
