It’s through ANDE that I met Andrew Stern, of Dalberg Advisors, and we’ve served together on ANDE’s Executive Committee in recent years. I sat down with Andrew Stern to talk about a topic that’s near and dear to my heart—how to spur a financial market to serve the unmet needs of the world’s 450 million poorest farmers while preserving our natural resources.

Last year with ANDE’s sponsorship and support from the Citi and Skoll foundations, Dalberg published the seminal report, “Catalyzing Smallholder Agricultural Finance,” which pegs the market opportunity at $450 billion and shows that increased financing can boost farmer yields and income.

This interview captures the kind of combustible excitement and coordinated action that can come from horizontal integration of too often vertical, disconnected efforts to grow prosperity in the developing world.