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Press Release | New Project in Uganda to Accelerate Farmers’ Access to Finance

Posted On: January 28, 2025
EWS-KT staff provide training on creating a farm business plan.

Pilot Project to Accelerate Access to Finance for Smallholder Farmers in Northern Uganda Starts with Financing from Austria

LIRA, UGANDA – In northern Uganda, East-West Seed Knowledge Transfer Foundation (EWS-KT) seeks to establish an innovative approach to farmer finance that combines upskilling vegetable farmers and developing farmer credit scores, with funding from Austrian Development Cooperation. Together, EWS-KT, Financial Access Consulting Services (FACS), and the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) aim to set up a replicable model that expands access to finance for the country’s smallholder farmers. 

Smallholder farmers in Uganda, even those with sustained success and strong farming practices, generally lack access to affordable business loans. This makes it difficult for vegetable farmers to invest in the necessary supplies for the next planting season, much less expand their operations.

Smallholders’ lack of traditional financing collateral is a barrier to financial inclusion, and their smaller loan profiles raise transaction costs for traditional lenders. In addition, without reliable historical data on smallholder farming ventures, financial institutions have not recognized the steady income that vegetable farming can bring.

Farmers participate in an on-field training in northern Uganda.

Addressing the finance gap from multiple angles, EWS-KT and FACS are piloting an innovative financial inclusion concept that improves farmers’ agricultural practices, business skills, and financial literacy; builds farmer credit score profiles for lenders; and increases access to affordable financing. This 3-year pilot, which will be carried out in the Lango region of Uganda, is co-funded by ADA, which is the operational unit of Austrian Development Cooperation, and EWS-KT.

Relations between Austria and Uganda date back to the early 1980s, and Uganda has been a priority country of Austrian Development Cooperation since 1992. ADA supports projects that capitalize on the potential of the private sector to reduce poverty and promote sustainable growth through its Business Partnerships scheme.

In this case, ADA will provide funding to EWS-KT due to “its unique and collaborative solution bridging smallholder farmers’ needs for affordable financing and financial institutions’ needs to make informed lending decisions,” as stated in the funding decision.

“We are excited to engage in a partnership that has the potential to improve the living conditions of 8,000 smallholder farmers. We look forward to seeing the project’s promising approach fully take shape and are proud to take part in a business model that translates into solid results for people in our partner country Uganda,” emphasizes ADA Managing Director Friedrich Stift.

Smallholder farmers fashion leaf pots in which to grow seedlings during a training in northern Uganda.

Using its proven model of farmer-led vegetable cultivation demonstration plots, EWS-KT will train 8,000 farmers in effective climate-smart farming techniques, along with financial literacy and business planning. Based on EWS-KT’s certification of trained farmers and on collected farm data, FACS, through its LendXS digital services platform, will prepare individual farmer credit scores, which will provide partner financial institutions with the information and confidence they need to offer financing at lower cost and risk.

The project, which will run through June 2027, is designed to enable sustainable, climate-smart vegetable production at marketable scale for smallholder farmers, while establishing a replicable pathway for agricultural expansion and market growth through affordable financing.

For more information on this pilot project, please contact EWS-KT.


Austrian Development Cooperation logo.

Since its foundation in 2004, Austrian Development Agency (ADA) seeks to ensure that sustainable development works to the benefit of all people in Africa, Asia, South-Eastern and Eastern Europe. Together with public institutions, civil society, universities and the private sector, ADA facilitates projects and programs with a current total volume of 557 million euros. For more about ADA, visit www.entwicklung.at/en.

East-West Seed Knowledge Transfer Foundation (EWS-KT) improves the vegetable production and business skills of smallholder farmers by providing training in sustainable and profitable horticultural techniques and farm business planning. This approach enhances farmers’ livelihoods and increases the supply of safe-to-eat vegetables, while simultaneously catalyzing the development of innovative agricultural input markets. For more about our work in Uganda, visit our Uganda page. For inquiries, contact us here.

Financial Access Consulting Services (FACS) logo.

Financial Access Consulting Services (FACS) is a social enterprise specializing in rural financial services. Through a combination of advisory and technology services, FACS designs and delivers solutions to accelerate financial inclusion for smallholder farmers at scale. It uses its data-driven agricultural analytics and operational banking experience to design less risky, scalable and sustainable loan portfolios and create investment opportunities for banks, microfinance institutions and (impact) investors at lower cost. For more on FACS, visit www.facsglobal.com.

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