FIELD Report No. 20: Assessment of Financial Services for Agribusiness and Rural Farmers in Timor-Leste

The “Assessment of Financial Services for Agribusiness and Rural Farmers in Timor-Leste” was commissioned by USAID/Timor-Leste in order to determine definable gaps between current and future “effective demand” and “effective supply” of finance in the Timor-Leste rural agricultural sector, and to analyze the key constraints to expansion of agricultural finance markets.

An extensive review was undertaken of a large number of prior and current Timor-Leste government, private sector and multilateral/bilateral donor reports, project documents, national-level strategies, statistical data, and other information related to the multiple subjects affecting agricultural sector finance.

In this paper, challenges and opportunities for agribusiness/rural finance are presented, and recommendations are made for actions to enhance current and future agribusiness and rural finance markets in Timor-Leste.