Agricultural Finance Review: Volume 66 Issue 2

An overview of recent developments in the microfinance literature

Valentina M. Hartarska, Martin Holtmann

This paper presents an overview of microfinance and microfinance research. The objective is to show that microfinance research has come full circle: from policies to lending…

Microfinance in developing countries: accomplishments, debates, and future directions

Richard L. Meyer, Geetha Nagarajan

This paper provides an overview of the microfinance industry in developing countries. It highlights the early development of the concept of microfinance and identifies some of the…

A comparative review of major types of rural microfinance institutions in developing countries

Manfred Zeller

This paper describes different types of rural microfinance institutions, and examines their comparative advantages as well as related challenges to and strategies for deepening…

The Uganda rural farmers scheme: women’s accessibility to agricultural credit

Biruma M. Abaru, Amin W. Mugera, David W. Norman, Allen M. Featherstone

This study investigates factors related to loan approval, disbursement, repayment, and loan rationing among 1,012 farmers in the Rural Farmers Scheme (RFS), Uganda, between 1987…

Enhancing microfinance using index‐based risk‐transfer products

Jerry R. Skees, Barry J. Barnett

While significant progress in microcredit and microfinance has been made in low‐income countries, lending for small farming enterprises has been limited. This article reviews how…

A dynamic model of individual and group lending in developing countries

Ani L. Katchova, Mario J. Miranda, Claudio Gonzalez‐Vega

This paper examines the contract design problem of microfinance institutions seeking to maximize outreach to the poor while remaining financially sustainable. A dynamic model of…

Making loans to make friends: explaining the dismal financial performance of financial service associations

Andrew G. Mude

This paper investigates the ways in which microfinance provision can unravel and yield perverse outcomes that run counter to its stated objective. It presents a theoretical…

Savings and asset allocation of households in Uganda

Barnabas Kiiza, Glenn D. Pederson

The Government of Uganda has put in place the Plan for the Modernization of Agriculture as part of its poverty reduction program. That program incorporates the improvement of…

Introducing inventory credit into Nigerien agriculture: improving technology diffusion

Felix G. Baquedano, John H. Sanders

A critical component of agriculture in developing countries is increasing soil fertility in response to depleted soils and declining crop yields. An inventory credit program was…

Agricultural production credit clubs in Armenia: facilitating investment through market linkages, social capital, and microcredit

Hamish R. Gow, Aleksan Shanoyan, Lilya Abrahamyan, Mariana Alesksandryan

Armenia’s 1991 privatization and land redistribution process handed ownership and control of agricultural production to over 300,000 inexperienced, financially distressed…