Wageningen, 06 October 2016

The growth of small-scale agriculture in developing countries is being held back by critical underfunding. Seeking to address this challenge, an international conference will explore an innovative approach for agricultural finance – the blending of private, philanthropic and public funding to leverage greater capital flows into smallholder value chains. Organised by the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), together with the global finance platform Convergence and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the Blending4Ag event will be held in Brussels on November 7-8. The conference is expected to lead to improved practices in mobilising agricultural finance, as well as to help forge new partnerships for mitigating and sharing risks in smallholder funding.

For immediate release
Brussels, 07 November 2016

Opening statement delivered by Michael Hailu, Director of CTA, at the Blending4Ag conference, on Monday 7 November. The Blending4Ag conference is taking place in Brussels and is focusing on the strategic use of international and national development finance and philanthropic funds to mobilise private capital flows into agricultural value chains in developing countries.