An Operational Framework for Smallholders’ Access to Finance through Bank (A- Card Model) Ag. Input Retailer Agent Bank Smallholder Farmers Micro Finance Institute (MFI) Commercial Bank Farmers purchase ag. inputs from the retailer using A-card (S-10); Account to account cash transfer takes place through retailer’s smart phone and retailers withdraw cash from agent bank booth (S-11) Bank provides credit card (A-card) to the farmers through advice of MFI and AESA project and maintains the bank accounts (S-9) Farmers payback the credited amount with 10% interest after 6 months through the Agent bank booth (S-12) Retailer operates an bank account with Bank through Agent bank (S-8) A financial agreement between MFI and bank for Agent banking and maintaining a term deposit account with the Bank to provide a security on farmers’ credit (S-6) A bilateral MoU between AESA project and MFI to select and capacity building of farmers on business planning and financial management (S-4) A tripartite MoU among AESA-MFI and Bank (S-5) Farmers registered with MFI and have savings deposit (S-2) AESA Project AESA project organizes, trains and links the smallholder farmer groups with the MFI for savings (S-1) AESA project identifies inputs retailers with smart phone and orient them on ‘A-card’ (S-3) Farmers open bank accounts through advice of AESA project and MFI (S-7) S-1 S-2 S-7 S-4 S-5 S-6 S-8 S-9 S-10 S-11 S-12 S-3 S= Step Initial Stage Development Stage Operational Stage Repayment stage S1 – S3 S4 – S8 S9 – S11 S12 Copyright@2016, USAID Agricultural Extension Support Activity Project