Beyond Financial Services: Improving Access to Basic Financial Services and Agricultural Input and Output Markets by Smallholder Farmers in Zimbabwe
- Partner: Aga Khan Foundation (AKF)
- Publication Type: Case Study
- Date: April 2011
- Team: Ben Fowler and David Panetta
- Recommended Citation:
This case study examines CARE International’s efforts to promote access to basic financial services and agricultural input and output markets in very poor areas of rural Zimbabwe. CARE facilitated relationships between input wholesalers and rural agro-dealers that enabled the provision of previously unavailable agricultural inputs. The objective of this case study was to investigate two research propositions: (a) savings groups enhance the capacity of smallholder farmers to purchase agricultural inputs (b) the linkages of savings groups to an agro-dealer model improves access to and participation in agricultural input and output markets.
