The International Law Institute (ILI), in partnership with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the ADB Institute (ADBI), led in-country workshops from April 21-30, 2026, in the Philippines, Cambodia, Nepal, and Bhutan to shape the Asia Pacific Agricultural Finance Toolkit. The toolkit is being developed as a practical guide for policymakers and finance providers to help close the finance gap for smallholder farmers.
Smallholder farmers are critical to the economic growth, food security, and sustainability of Asia and Pacific region, yet remain significantly underserved, particularly by private finance. The toolkit responds to this gap by offering concrete, implementable strategies to expand access to finance.
It adopts a holistic view of the agrifinance ecosystem, from pre- and post-harvest, through to market access, mapping available financial products, relevant international instruments, and risk mitigants. It also identifies the legal, regulatory, and market infrastructure needed to scale financing solutions. In doing so, it aims to support finance providers in designing tailored credit products, while enabling governments to build the conditions for sustainable, large-scale deployment.
More than 70 participants from government agencies, financial institutions, industry associations representing smallholder interests, and other stakeholders contributed insights during the workshops, strengthening the toolkit’s relevance and practicality across diverse country contexts. The toolkit will be presented at the Policy Dialogue on Closing the Finance Gap for Smallholder Farmers at ADBI Headquarters in Tokyo on July 8-9, 2026.
The initiative is spearheaded by ADB’s Law and Policy Reform Program, in partnership with ADBI and ILI, and supported by the Agrifinance Toolkit Advisory Committee, comprising the International Fund for Agricultural Development, Norinchukin Research Institute, Asia-Pacific Rural and Agricultural Credit Association, and UNIDROIT.