Countries
El Salvador, Honduras, Bolivia, Peru, Guatemala, Bangladesh

Local Project Partner
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German Project Partner
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Donor
IFAD / EU

Duration
02.09.2024 - 31.08.2026

Agriculture is the most important source of income in rural regions around the world. However, especially in remote areas, smallholder farmers face obstacles such as lack of access to finance, lack of efficient technology and education, and access to markets. While FinTech and AgTech companies offer numerous innovative solutions and have gained significant influence in Latin America and Asia in recent years, their offering for smallholder farmers in rural areas remains limited. Against the backdrop of smallholder farmers' great need for digital solutions that have the potential to drive the transition to sustainable food systems, Innovatech 2.0 will play a central role in linking digitalization and agroecology.

The overall goal of the grant is to increase productivity, income, climate adaptation and economic resilience of rural smallholders. To achieve this goal, the development objective is to strengthen the ecosystem of digital services provided by Agtech/Fintech companies in Latin America and the Caribbean and the Asian-Pacific-Regions that allow rural smallholders to have better access to markets, financial and non-financial services, and achieve technical solutions.

Task

• Innovatech 2.0 aims to promote financial and economic development, competition, innovation and inclusion of digital technologies with a focus on FinTech and AgTech start-ups in rural areas of Latin America and Asia.
• The focus is on countries where financial and other digital services for smallholder farmers and the rural poor are still underdeveloped.
• The project promotes the participation of small-scale producers in sustainable food systems through the provision of adapted technologies. This contributes to increased income, improved nutrition and increased climate resilience of smallholder farmers.
• In addition, Innovatech 2.0 promotes strategic partnerships between agricultural producers and consumers and offers vulnerable groups, such as women, young people and indigenous peoples, prospects for a secure livelihood.