Philippine Smallholder Agri-Fishery Resilience and Regenerative Fund finances climate-smart agriculture and aquaculture projects. The Fund boosts rural incomes and access to affordable fresh produce for households and big businesses.

With food consumption in the Philippines projected to increase by 40% by 2050, feeding a growing population presents major challenges—particularly in the agriculture sector, where smallholder farms, outdated practices, environmental degradation, and climate change contribute to fragile agri-food systems. At the same time, an estimated USD 6 billion agricultural credit gap—driven by high perceived risks, a mismatch between traditional lending practices and smallholder needs, and a lack of supply chain data—further limits smallholders’ ability to adapt and scale up.

The Philippine Smallholder Agri-Fishery Resilience and Regenerative Fund is an innovative blended debt financing model combines concessional capital with risk management strategies such as index-based crop insurance and agronomic support. The catalytic first-loss capital layer improves the risk-return profile of rural smallholders to crowd-in additional commercial investors. This makes it a transformative model that would benefit from the Lab’s financial structure and stress testing services as well as its’ environmental and social impact modelling and technical supervision.

The Fund integrates agroforestry and mangrove restoration to enhance soil health, water quality, and carbon sequestration while diversifying incomes and reducing erosion. It targets a 30% income boost, a 20% productivity increase, and a 30% hike in women’s participation. This will be made possible by fostering climate-resilient, gender-inclusive farming and fisheries, reducing vulnerability to droughts, heatwaves, and pests.