WEBINAR: Transforming farmers’ access to finance through digital agriculture

Agriculture is the backbone of most Low and Middle-Income Countries, yet smallholder farmers face significant challenges that limit their agricultural productivity and earning potential. Among them, lack of access to finance restricts farmers’ ability to purchase agricultural inputs and make capital investments in their farms. Digital technologies allow farmers and other agricultural sector stakeholders to mitigate some of the challenges they face in agricultural production.

Speakers

Panos Loukos, Senior Insights Manager at GSMA’s AgriTech Programme (Global System for Mobile Communications)
He provides intelligence and analysis around digital agriculture topics with a focus on innovative business models, emerging use cases, best practices, and socio-economic impact. Before joining the GSMA, Panos spent several years in leading analyst and consultancy firms with a special focus on mobile operators’ digital strategies. Panos holds a BSc in Plant Science from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, and an MSc in Plant Disease from Imperial College London. More recently, Panos completed an MBA degree at the University of Manchester. 

Sonia Pietosi, Insight Manager with the GSMA’s AgriTech Team
She provides insights and analysis instrumental to build the case for digital financial inclusion of smallholder farmers. Before joining the GSMA, Sonia worked as financial inclusion consultant at Oxford Policy Management and A2F Consulting, among other companies. She managed and conducted customer and market research, case studies and evaluations in more than 20 countries, mainly in Africa.  She holds a Masters in Economics from the University of Cagliari, Italy, and a Masters in Microfinance from the Solvay Business School in Brussels.  

Moderator

Massimo Pera, Project Coordinator/AgrInvest and SFVC D&F Technical Network Coordinator 

Disclaimer: The Rural and Agricultural Finance and Investment Technical Network (RAFI-TN) and the FAO’s Technical Network on Sustainable Food Value Chain Development (FTN-SFVC)  have been merged. The name of the new network is Sustainable Food Value Chains - Development and Finance Technical Network (SFVC D&F).