Challenge
No industry can thrive without credit, and financing for smallholders is nearly nonexistent. Banks and micro-finance institutions have left smallholder farmers behind (especially in emerging economies), restricting them to lives of manual labor and subsistence living. Only 3% of smallholder farmers in emerging economies have access to financing for the equipment they need to become productive.
Description
CoolCap brings smallholder farmers into the productive sector by offering them leap-frog technology that is capable of paying for itself within one year, like: climate-resistant Solar Powered Water Pumps for horticulture, simple Feed Pulverizers for dairy fodder, and others. Unlike micro-finance, we offer a unique Pay-as-you-Harvest© system whereby wholesale buyers deduct payments at the time of harvest from the farmer’s proceeds and send them to CoolCap.
Outcomes
Transformed the productive capacity of 30 smallholder farm families with equipment valued at $23,600 within the first year of operation in Kenya.
