"He helped us a lot, we didn't know anything about oranges, " says Pauline Lueba, asmallholder who today earns a steady income by selling the oranges from her 800 trees to major retail chains across South Africa.
Timberland partnered with Smallholder Farmers Alliance, a local non-governmental organization (NGO), to meet its commitment of helping plant 5 million trees in a five-year period.
Impact-driven smallholder agricultural lenders such as Root Capital, Oikocredit, Triodos, and Rabobank have played a catalytic role in driving financing into this market.