The Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP) has announced a new $75 million investment window aimed at enhancing food security and agricultural development in low-income countries. The Business Investment Financing Track (BIFT) seeks to support smallholder farmers and micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in the agri-food sector.
BIFT aims to derisk private investments, facilitating additional finance for high-potential but traditionally underserved segments of the food system. This initiative comes as the global food system faces challenges such as supply chain disruptions and extreme weather events due to climate change.
GAFSP, a multilateral partnership platform established by the G20 in 2010, has deployed over $2.5 billion in donor resources for global food and nutrition security financing. The BIFT will join GAFSP’s existing financing tracks targeting low-income country strategies, agribusinesses, and producer organizations. These efforts have supported over 300 projects benefiting more than 20 million people worldwide.
The BIFT aims to incentivize public-private partnerships, promote civil society engagement, and strengthen co-financing platforms that aggregate funding from various investors including impact investors, asset managers, and banks. Blended finance solutions under BIFT will build on strategic public investments in nutritious food value chains and leverage grants or concessional finance instruments like guarantees, insurance, concessional debt, and equity.
“High-potential agri-MSMEs in lower-income countries are being left behind by financial markets and have no way of breaking into regional or global markets. The BIFT will deploy systemic solutions tailored to the needs of small producers and early-stage agribusinesses so they can achieve scale and tap into conventional financing,” said James Catto, Director of International Development Policy at the United States Department of the Treasury and Chair of the GAFSP Steering Committee.
The BIFT pilot will run through June 2026 in partnership with several institutions including the African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, International Finance Corporation, IDB Invest, and the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). It will target smallholder farmers, producer organizations, MSMEs, and agribusiness start-ups involved in producing or marketing nutritious foods for local and regional markets—segments often overlooked by private investors due to perceived risks or modest returns.
“BIFT is a significant step forward in addressing the smallholder financing gap by unlocking much-needed private capital,” said Felipe Dizon, Acting Program Manager of the GAFSP Fund at the World Bank. "This is not just about financing projects; it is about working with a range of partners from government to civil society to the private sector to create long-lasting solutions that improve food security, climate resilience, and economic opportunities across some of the world’s most vulnerable regions."