Blended Finance Structures to Scale up Climate Smart Agriculture

Date and Time:

Thursday, 03 July 2025
(03:00 PM – 04:30 PM IST)

 

INTRODUCTION

There is an urgency to address the need for climate adaptation in the agrarian sector. In mid-November, we assembled in Alibaug to discuss Scaling Up a Promising Stream of Climate Adaptation in Agriculture. We brought together a diverse group of stakeholders—including financial institutions, investors, Philanthropies and sustainability experts—to explore how strategic capital and partnerships can promote climate-smart farming solutions. Since then, then there have been more commitments to the cause of financing the technological solutions which cause climate resilience in agriculture.

This work started with the Ashden award winning Lakhpati Kisan Program, which demonstrated how solutions like drip irrigation, solar systems, and polyhouse farming etc. have helped increase farmer incomes and build long-term sustainability. Given the demonstration of increased income, commercial capital has been brought in subsequently by actively demonstrating the economic value to financial institutions. While more and more Financial Institutions are committing, there are still awareness gaps about the technological solutions and their utility. While some are being documented, documents, howsoever reliable cannot convey the actual experience. Just like the web-based cab system (Ola and Uber) 6 to 7 years ago, there is a need for incentives to mainstream the usage. Thus, the nascent financing market needs the support of public and philanthropic finance to make help unsupported scale up in the subsequent times. The proposed webinar demonstrates five possible structures which combine commercial capital and public/ philanthropic capital with commercial capital, applicable to the present workstream. These structures have worked earlier in other circumstances.

Agenda

Opening Remarks & Context Setting:
Lakhpati Kisan and linked commercial financing till now & visible pipeline.

Speaker:

Ganesh Neelam CINI

 

Encouraging Innovation through Subsidy Models:
This session will explore the Partial Product Subsidy Model, which aims to reduce the initial risk for farmers by subsidizing part of the product cost. The goal is to incentivize the adoption of innovative farming solutions, while ensuring that institutional returns are leveraged until the market fully accepts the product.

Speaker:

Richa Goyal IKEA Foundation

 

Sharing Risk to Enhance Credit Access:
This session focuses on Credit Guarantee Schemes as risk-sharing mechanisms that reduce the financial institutions' (FIs) exposure to risk, particularly through first-loss guarantees. These schemes encourage FIs to offer new credit products to smallholder farmers, fostering innovation in financial products.

Speaker:

Jai Kumar Gaurav GIZ India

 

Scaling Financial Access through Concessional Loans:
This session will discuss the role of Low-Cost Concessional Loans as a blended finance tool to scale up lending for small but viable loan portfolios targeting farmers. The concessional funding acts as a scaling aid, attracting refinancing and stimulating onward lending.

Speaker:

Priya Naik Samhita

 

Driving Farmer Adoption through Interest Rate subsidy:
The Interest Rate Subsidy Model will be examined as a method to reduce farmers' psychological and financial barriers to adopting new farming practices. By temporarily reducing interest rates, these subsidies make financing more accessible to farmers in the early stages of product adoption.

Speaker:

Vibha Sharma Villgro

 

Driving Farmer Adoption through Lower Capex:
The Capex Subsidy Model will be examined as a method to reduce farmers' psychological and financial barriers to adopting new farming practices. By temporarily reducing capex, loan quantum and EMIs. These subsidies make financing more accessible to farmers in the early stages of product adoption.

Speaker:

Kritika Kumar GIZ India

 

Regulatory Landscape and Legal Frameworks for Blended Finance in Agriculture:
Post each of the agenda point, we will provide an overview of the regulatory aspects and legal considerations relevant to the structures. It will help participants understand how to ensure compliance while designing and deploying blended finance mechanisms.

Speaker:

Rahul Rishi Nishith Desai Associates

 

Expected Outcomes

The webinar is expected to clarify how some kind of blended finance structures can be of benefit to create climate adaptation in agriculture. From the webinar, attendees in CSRs, Philanthropies, Fund Structuring agencies etc. can then structure how these impactful interventions. FIs / commercial investors / Impact Funds would be able to relate as to how they can be more impactful in their investments with the help of Philanthropic capital.

 

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

Knowledge Partners

Mobilisation Partners