FAO Agricultural Development Economics Technical Study, No. 35. 

Insufficient public financing under current fiscal constraints demands more private financing to support investment in agrifood systems. Despite the general enthusiasm for using remittances for development, initiatives face challenges in consistently directing these funds into productive endeavours. While efforts have mainly focused on collective or philanthropic remittance-based mechanisms, individual remittance-based mechanisms align better with the financial capabilities and remittance patterns of most migrants. This document first explores the available knowledge on individual remittances and their harnessing for business development using cash-based matching grant schemes and subsequently provides evidence on the implementation of such schemes in a rural setting. Against this backdrop, it then discusses recommendations and best practices on how to implement a programme for harnessing individual remittances for agribusiness development using a cash-matching grant scheme that could be scaled up or emulated.