Cracking the Nut 2012: Attracting Private Sector Investment to Rural and Agricultural Markets, Lessons from the 2012 Conference

This publication summarizes key lessons and experiences shared at a conference on attracting private sector investment to rural and agricultural markets. The conference emphasized the need for partnerships between farmers, local and international private businesses, donors, development practitioners, and public officials to find creative solutions to complex and interconnected global food markets. The core themes of the conference were, namely, expanding to new markets, tapping new sources of supply, creating effective partnerships, making finance work, and forging positive government support. The conference also presented findings that cut across all five themes, including mapping gender roles and impacts, providing rural youth with incentives and technical assistance to prepare them for markets, and segmenting markets to identify appropriate approaches to serve marginalized groups. Recommendations include:

• Champions that think long term and systemically can mobilize different actors toward a shared vision;
• Large, multi-stakeholder initiatives can facilitate patient capital to strengthen rural and agricultural markets;
• Creative uses of technology can serve rural areas more efficiently;
• There is a need for more engagement between private and public sector agents of change, diving deeper into sectoral issues.