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What donor persona are we targeting?
Hypothesis is to focus on small foundations / family offices. Other options: Individual social investors/donors; Large Foundations; DFIs; Impact investors; CS; Crypto
Closely related to this is what “theme” do we want to showcase as that influences which funders to target; current take is to prioritize climate adaptation / resilience. Other options are livelihoods / farmer income, gender inclusivity, GHG mitigation, etc.
Schedule brainstorm w Strategy / BD team. Aiming for Apr 8 or Apr 12
What sort of investments do we want to initially showcase (eg, what are the “use of proceeds”)? While this will be driven by farmer group needs and donor personas, want to start with a focus area.
Hypothesis is to focus on assets which support climate resilience which could include sustainable ag mechanization (zero tillage machines, laser land leveling), resource efficiency (eg, drip irrigation), reducing food wastage (cold storage), drought resilience crop varieties and inputs, etc
Other areas to consider:
Funding for adopting sustainable production practices; up-front payment which would enable farmers to achieve certification or tap into ecosystem services markets (maybe drought resilient seeds and inputs fit here?)
Direct cash transfers which FPO members can use to procure service which don't make sense for the FPO to own (eg, warehousing for farmer groups working with cereals, transportation, tractor rental, premiums for insurance or other risk mitigation products, etc.)
Develop a list of “Top 5” technologies under the “climate resilient assets” theme which are backed by solid evidence for their impact. Speaking with JK on Apr 8 to explore further, reached out to Maria at ADMI who has worked in this space. There are some good reports available here as well.
What sort of impact metrics and stories do farmer groups need to generate for funders?
This will be informed by (1)
Can KDE be adapted as a tool to gather FPO level metrics?
How should we navigate govt subsidies?
Sample potential investment: 15 lakh for a 2MW solar powered cold storage unit
Expect 60% to the covered by govt subsidy (Agri Infra fund), 25% from funding platform donors and remainder from farmer groups (to ensure skin in the game)
Given collecting the govt subsidy funds will take a long time, does it make sense for funding platform to cover the 60% tranche and then recover payment once the govt subsidy finally comes? This might not be practical so maybe the 60% is just a further investment we make early days
Funding mechanics
Would funding happen from DGT or DGF?
Any GST / other tax implications to the FPO that receives funds?
Context
If we pursue an "access to capital" path, I think we should give grants to farmer groups (where they put up say 33% of the required proceeds to have skin the game) rather than debt. The pool of grant financing that could be mobilized is pretty large and it feels closer to our DNA.
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