The Common Fund for Commodities (CFC) together with the Agricultural Commodity Transformation (ACT) Fund is pleased to announce that the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Climate Action, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMUKN) has approved a 500,000 euros grant to strengthen the ACT Fund's Technical Assistance (TA) Facility, which will be managed by the CFC experienced in-house TA Facility team.
The grant will accelerate the transition to inclusive organic, regenerative, agroecological and climate-resilient agricultural systems across countries eligible for Official Development Assistance, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. This will ensure that nature-based solutions are implemented, thus also contributing to the conservation and restoration of nature.
The funding will support a comprehensive three-year programme (December 2025–December 2028) targeting agricultural small and medium-sized enterprises (agri-SMEs) and their networks of smallholder farmers. Through tailored technical assistance and advisory services, the programme will contribute to enhancing climate change mitigation and adaptation, restoring ecosystems and improving the resilience and income of smallholder-based commodity value chains.
Technical Assistance: A Key Pillar of the ACT Fund
The ACT Fund, established by the Common Fund for Commodities (CFC), blends public and private capital to provide trade finance, working capital and long-term debt financing to SMEs in agricultural commodity value chains across Africa, Asia and Latin America. Addressing a substantial unmet demand for financing, the ACT Fund enables these businesses to connect millions of smallholder farmers to attractive markets, to create local economic value and support formal jobs in rural areas while preserving nature through inclusive organic, regenerative, agroecological, and climate-resilient practices. The ACT Fund will thus promote the implementation of nature-based solutions which contribute to the conservation and restoration of nature.
The ACT Fund's TA Facility operates in close collaboration with the ACT Fund investment activities, co-designing and implementing tailored technical support and advisory services together with the Fund’s investee companies to accelerate their developmental impact in their day-to-day businesses.
Scaling the Impact of the ACT Fund
The grant comes at a pivotal moment for the ACT Fund, which reached its first close of 40 million US dollars in September 2025. The Fund is preparing its first investments in high-impact agri-SMEs across Africa, Asia and Latin America. Over its 10-year lifecycle, the ACT Fund aims to support 275,000 smallholder farmers, strengthen nature-based, climate-resilient production across more than 250,000 hectares, and deploy capital to 70 agricultural SMEs.
The ACT TA Facility complements ACT Fund investments by supporting the transition of smallholder farmers toward inclusive organic, regenerative, agroecological, and climate-resilient agricultural systems, and de-risks the investments by addressing operational constraints faced by SMEs.
Eva M. Johansson, Senior Technical Assistance Facility Manager at the CFC, noted: "The Federal Environment Ministry’s support enables the ACT TA Facility to deliver targeted, high-impact support to the agri-SMEs and farmers who form the backbone of agricultural value chains in Sub-Saharan Africa. This partnership strengthens our shared commitment to climate resilience, biodiversity conservation and restoration and inclusive rural development."
Transforming agricultural systems requires more than capital, it requires partnership. The Federal Environment Ministry is a proud inaugural partner to the ACT TA Facility as it builds on CFC's proven TA model and offers a platform to deploy resources strategically, strengthen resilient local value chains and place smallholder farmers at the centre of regenerative transitions across agricultural value chains. In this way the ministry is supporting essential nature conservation and restoration.
Agricultural SMEs across developing countries increasingly operate under severe climate stress, while farmers face declining soil fertility, unpredictable weather patterns, and rapid biodiversity loss. Through this partnership, the Federal Environment Ministry and the CFC are investing in practical, scalable solutions that reinforce environmental, nature-based and economic resilience.
Together, this collaboration positions the ACT Fund to demonstrate how aligned finance and technical assistance can accelerate the shift toward inclusive organic, regenerative, agroecological, and climate-resilient agricultural systems – supporting stronger rural economies and healthier ecosystems across Sub-Saharan Africa and beyond.
The ACT Fund and its TA Facility are part of the Common Fund for Commodities (CFC), an autonomous intergovernmental financial institution established under the auspices of the United Nations Committee on Trade and Development.