Financing Agripreneurs and Rural Small and Medium-size Enterprise

Discussion in this session focuses on innovative financing mechanisms, including emerging ICT platforms and fintech, to extend credit and banking services to small and dispersed borrowers, i.e., agripreneurs and SMEs for farm and nonfarm operations in rural areas. The panelists explore how they see the future and what is required from the public sector in terms of enabling policies and creating a level playing field to foster and expand pro-farmer smart financing options and opportunities.

Knowledge Sharing among ADB Member Countries

Some countries in Asia and the Pacific have taken creative and out-of-the box initiatives through public policies and public and private investments. Discussions in this session focus on what has been done so far and adopted by member countries of the Asian Development Bank. The sector profiles and developments showcase knowledge sharing and learning by participants to reflect on the good models that their countries can adopt.

ADB Experience and Knowledge Sharing (Focus on Gender, Climate Change, and High-Level Technology)

The Asian Development Bank has stepped up its efforts to introduce innovative approaches and technologies under its policy-based and investment loans as well as technical assistance projects. This session presents some of these innovative projects and highlights lessons learned so that other developing member countries may consider adopting similar approaches and designs for their projects.

Rural Distress

This session highlights the imbalance in rural–urban development and its significant negative impacts on national economic growth, rural employment, food security and nutrition, and urbanization. Good examples of rural revitalization will show that well-developed rural areas can play a vital role in wider economic development and generating good jobs for the youth. Specific recommendations regarding green and blue investments were discussed.

Farming Crisis

This session describes the current key challenges of farming and proposes transformative changes in policies and approaches for making farming profitable and gender-friendly, highly productive, and attractive to the youth in the region.

Lisa-Maria Rebelo

Dr. Lisa-Maria Rebelo is a principal researcher at IWMI. Her research involves the development of new, innovative Earth Observation (EO) based methodologies to improve the understanding of interactions between basin-scale hydrological and ecological functioning, and water availability and allocation, as well as identifying options for improved management of water resources at multiple scales.

Tin Htut

Tin Htut graduated from Yezin Agricultural University in 1980. He obtained his Master of Science in Plant Breeding from University of North Carolina, United State of America in 1991. As an IRRI PhD scholar, he studied plant breeding at the University of the Philippines Los Baños from 1996 to 2000. In 2003, he was invited as a research fellow in the IRRI to assist in the genetic analysis of iron-dense grains. Htut was recognized in 2010 as one of IRRI’s outstanding alumni in the field of rice research management.

Erkinbek Choduev

Erkinbek Choduev is the Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Melioration, Ministry of Agriculture, Kyrgyzstan. Prior to this, he was the Director of OsOO Ak-Teks from 2011 to 2014, and worked in different capacities in OsOO Limateks Cotton Corporation from 1999 to 2011. He was member at the Chairman of Local Parliament from 1995 to 2000, and member of the Province Parliament from 2000 to 2005. Choduev attended the Frunze Politechnical Institute (known as Kyrgyz State Technical University).