This book, which is co-published with the Agricultural Credit Policy Council (ACPC), provides a review of carefully selected literature and descriptions of valuable experiences that could lead to a policy research agenda on rural finance. Such an agenda must be drawn from a vision to promote the provision of efficient, broadly based, and sustainable financial products and services to various rural economic agents. The policy research agenda should aim at producing research studies that will offer recommendations to policymakers on how to remove the constraints on both the demand for and supply of financial services and products in the rural areas. The proposed agenda should specifically address the issues confronting the rural economy today: asymmetric information, high transactions cost, systemic and covariant risks in agriculture and the lack of diversification in rural economies.
