A grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foun­da­tion will help to start new agri­cul­ture sup­port fund­ing. The World Bank will oper­ate the fund that aims to grow finan­cial ser­vices for rural areas in the under-developed world.

From India E News, Arun Kumar gives us more details on the new fund.

In a time of tight credit, the Facil­ity will sup­port grants to bank and non-bank insti­tu­tions for activ­i­ties to increase access to finan­cial ser­vices, such as sav­ings, credit, pay­ments and insur­ance, in rural areas in devel­op­ing coun­tries as prof­itable busi­ness lines, the bank announced Mon­day.

‘In India, a coun­try with rel­a­tively high rural bank­ing out­reach, 45 per­cent of small­holder farm­ers did not have a sav­ings account, and 69 per­cent did not have a credit account with for­mal finan­cial insti­tu­tions,’ it noted announc­ing the new ven­ture in recog­ni­tion of the finan­cial cri­sis hit­ting the poor­est the hardest.

‘There is a great need among small­holder farm­ers, who make up the bulk of the world’s poor, for ways to save and man­age their money,’ said Car­los Cuevas, Deputy Direc­tor of Finan­cial Ser­vices for the Poor for the Bill and amp; Melinda Gates Foundation.

‘Hav­ing access to safe and reli­able finan­cial ser­vices such as sav­ings, credit and insur­ance, allows poor farm­ers to safe­guard cash, which they often receive only once a year dur­ing har­vest. In this way, they can bet­ter pro­vide for their fam­i­lies, pre­pare for emer­gen­cies, and build long term finan­cial security.’

‘We need to ensure sus­tain­able access to finan­cial ser­vices as a fun­da­men­tal way to reduce poverty,’ said Renate Kloeppinger-Todd, Rural Finance Adviser at the World Bank.

‘The Facil­ity will enable finan­cial insti­tu­tions to pro­vide new oppor­tu­ni­ties for small­holder farm­ers to make pro­duc­tiv­ity enhanc­ing invest­ments and to use new tech­nol­ogy and services.’

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