Innovative Finance
The annual unmet financing needs across agrifood systems are enormous, particularly for small-scale farmers, small and medium enterprises and farmer organizations in developing countries. These amounts do not even include the additional funding needed each year to sustainably transform the world’s agrifood systems.
Innovative financing solutions – such as impact investing, fintechs, blended finance, other de-risking instruments and carbon finance – can help bridge that gap.
The FAO Investment Centre’s advisory team supports partners like the European Commission, the European Investment Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the World Bank to do more and better in the agrifood lending sphere.
FAO’s portfolio of climate-related financing projects is also growing, as are efforts to align investments and planning with the Paris Agenda, helping countries and financiers meet their climate commitments.
The Centre is working with countries and partners to close the digital divide and introduce more digital solutions – like fintechs, mobile payments, weather-based insurance – that can make a difference in the agrifood sector, especially for small-scale producers.
Initiatives
Latest stories
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Directions in Investment
Sustainability-linked loans and the transition to more sustainable agrifood systems
02/06/2026
Agrifood systems are under growing pressure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, protect biodiversity, improve water stewardship and ensure more sustainable...
TERRA: expanding access to finance for Kenyan small and medium agrifood companies
01/06/2026
A EUR 30 million credit line from the Italian bank Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP) to Equity Bank Kenya will ease access to finance for small and...
Investment Briefs
The dos and don’ts of blended finance in agrifood systems – advice to mobilize capital for impact via investment funds
23/03/2026
Blended finance – the use of public or philanthropic money to mobilize private investment for sustainable development – quickly gained traction as...
New book traces the FAO Investment Centre’s evolution over its first 60 years
19/12/2025
For over six decades, the FAO Investment Centre has helped countries invest in agrifood systems to reduce hunger, poverty and malnutrition and advance...
Latest publications
FAO Investment Centre - 2020 at a glance
07/2021
Making food systems more sustainable is not just about reducing carbon footprints, but also about creating jobs, reducing inequalities, improving efficiencies along supply chains and strengthening people’s ability to cope with climate change. This short summary - 2020 at a glance highlights the recent work fo the Centre.
FAO Investment Centre - 2019 at a glance
09/2020
Sustainable food systems are key to tackling our most pressing challenges – from ending hunger and poverty to preserving the...
FAO Investment Centre - 2018 at a glance
08/2019
Ambitious development agenda calls for extraordinary efforts – efforts that must be financed. Public funding through Official Development Assistance alone...
FAO Investment Centre - 2017 at a glance
09/2018
This brochure is a summary of the FAO Investment Centre activities during 2017.
1964-2014 FAO Investment Centre: 50 years of development support
01/2015
To celebrate the Investment Centre’s 50th anniversary, we at FAO reflected on these years of experiences in facilitating investment in agriculture and rural development. We have prepared this book to tell the story of how the Investment Centre came to be, what it is now and what we hope it will be in the years to come.