The Food and Agricultural Organization of the UN (FAO) and the African Rural and Agricultural Credit Association (AFRACA) network are pleased to announce an upcoming conference on the use of the value chain to reduce risk and increase access to financial services for agriculture and agribusiness. The African Value Chain Financing conference to be held in Nairobi, Kenya on October 16-18 2007 is for bankers, micro and SME finance institutions working with agriculture, agribusinesses, development NGOs and government ministries.

As with previous Value Chain Finance Conferences initiated by FAO for Latin America and South Asia, it will look at value chain finance models, innovations and effectiveness from the multiple viewpoints of banks, agribusinesses, farm organizations, government policy makers and development business service providers. With the increasing focus on value chain integration in agriculture and with today's technologies there are new models and ways of structuring finance and collateralization, increased opportunities for price and production risk mitigation and new models for partnerships among diverse stakeholders which can benefit the agricultural sector and rural communities.

There is no conference registration fee but registration is prioritized to those institutions and persons working in or relating with agricultural finance and is limited to availability of space. For more information on registration, please contact the conference website at:
http://www.afraca.org/agribanksforum/About%20Conference.html

For those unfamiliar with AFRACA, follow the conference link and learn about its work and its 94 African agriculture and commercial banks, MFIs and Central Bank members.

Calvin Miller, Senior Officer - Rural Finance
Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), Viale delle Terme di Caracalla,
00159 Rome, Italy
Tel. (39)-06-570-54469
Cell (39)-34-814-11108
calvin.miller@fao.org
www.fao.org/ag/ags/index_en.html
 "http://www.ruralfinance.org"