Wednesday 29.04.2015
PSD/FSD learning and capacity building
IMPROVING THE PRODUCTIVITY OF SMALL HOLDING FARMERS THROUGH PRIVATE SECTOR COLLABORATION
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Topics for discussion tables
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AgDevCo and Empresa de Comercialização Agricola Lda will present the key learnings from their agricultural ventures in sugar cultivation, beekeeping and maize farming across Africa. It will focus on topics ranging from building strong local management teams, trust-building and side-selling, land aggregation and farm ownership, to quality checks on product consistency. Based on their plans to set up a Smallholder Development Unit, AgDevCo will then present the key ingredients necessary to build equitable outgrower schemes and link farmers to markets through SME ventures set up thanks to adapted grants, technical assistance and patient capital, as well as the role that development agencies and private investors could play to support these efforts. Presentation:
Biolands Group and Barry Callebaut will host a discussion on how companies lending and providing farm services to, and sourcing directly from, small farmers can overcome the human resources challenges associated with building a functional delivery system.
They will also host a discussion on how to create more value in the communities with whom they work by developing sustainable social enterprises delivering essential services (such as education, and health, etc.) instead of relying on grant-based interventions.
C&A Foundation and Cotton Connect will host a discussion on the Organic Cotton Accelerator, a multi-stakeholder alliance that aims at addressing the inefficiencies and growing the sector of organic cotton, in a system-changing way. Points to be discussed will include governance (i.e. how to ensure transparency is maintained through the supply chain, how to ensure that added value reaches organic farmers), partners (how to bring the right set of public, non-profit and for-profit partners, and align their interests to reform the sector), and financing requirements for this alliance to be successful. Presentation:
Fairtrasa, Hystra and Ashoka will present the multi facets of social entrepreneurship and social businesses, and how these can bring life changing benefits to small farmers, possibly at a larger scale and more sustainably than ‘pure’ development efforts. It will then discuss how development agencies, such as the SDC, can leverage and encourage this trend to further its impact in growing and improving inclusive agriculture value chains. Presentation:
JAIN Micro Irrigation Systems will host a discussion on the most commercially viable approaches to help small farmers access, use productivity enhancing technologies. The discussion will seek to pinpoint the technologies best suited to enhancing farmer productivity, how the private sector can best support these initiatives, its motivations to do so, and how partnerships can help accelerate these efforts. Presentation:
Juhudi Kilimo and responsAbility will host a discussion on how financing small farmers needs to be coupled with interventions strengthening the entire value chain (from farmers’ credit and productivity to overall supply chain efficiencies). It will focus on how financial service companies should and can strengthen the growth of agriculture ecosystems for small farmers through growing and partnering with social ventures. Drawing from their experience from Juhudi Labs, it will present how incubators linked to financial companies can support the growth of start-ups bringing the benefits of their products and services to small-scale farmers. Presentation:
Khyati Foods will host a discussion on how private companies can help small farmers convert to organic agriculture and diversify production over time, leveraging the low intensity of inputs required and trust relationships built year after year. Drawing on their experience, the discussion will then focus on how their model could leverage partnerships to be replicated in Africa, or grown further in their current areas of operation. Presentation:
One Acre Fund will host a discussion on the importance of very-last-mile, rural distribution networks for smallholder productivity, which act as two-way channels (i.e. also connecting smallholder farmers to the market), providing them both inputs and markets for their produce, and ultimately facilitating the shift from subsistence to small enterprise. The discussion will explore the role of the private sector in integrated delivery mechanisms, its motivations to do so, and how development agencies can spur further innovation and engagement from the private sector on these issues.
