Response to the New Global Scenario: Agricultural Development and Sustainable and Inclusive Food Systems

The current environment creates new challenges. Changes have accelerated and the traditional risks in the agricultural sector, such as the lack of information, high transaction costs, geographic scattering and seasonal nature have become more pronounced. The damaging blows inflicted on the sector in recent years by the pandemic, for instance, have been compounded by the serious impact of inflation and high production costs. These have proven to be most damaging to the smallholders and medium farmers, who not only continue to experience problems in obtaining access to the financial system and the lack of government attention to their needs, but also have to struggle against the harmful effects produced by climate change. Although the financing of the agricultural and rural sector has proven to be resilient, allowing it to weather certain negative environmental effects, it continues to be insufficient and piecemeal, leaving farmers dependent upon informal financial sources. This document summarizes the topics presented at the 7th World Congress on Rural and Agricultural Finance.