Innovation in Business Models and Chainwide Learning for Market Inclusion of Smallholder Producers

Th e potential for modern agribusiness to promote broad-based economic growth in developing and emerging market economies is signifi cant. Food retailers, wholesalers, and processors have the potential to link smallholder producers to dynamic domestic and regional markets. Th ey can contribute technical and managerial capacity building and investment. However, this potential is often underutilized, and in many countries, smallholder producers and small- and medium-scale enterprises are relegated to lowervalue markets. While agribusiness is not, nor should it be, driven primarily by a development imperative, the retail and processing stages rarely see the reach of their actions at the production level, including the implications for smallholder producers. Furthermore, many recent initiatives, often working with development partners, seldom result in any lasting economic empowerment or sustained market engagement of smallholder farmers or their organizations. In many countries, there is little policy dialogue between the private and public sectors and other key stakeholders, including farmers’ organizations and civil society. Th is paper explores the business challenge of and case for smallholder producers’ market inclusion. It looks at some of the evidences that demonstrates how business models and business processes can succeed in securing market inclusion. It includes producer- and buyer-driven business models, the development of new market intermediaries, changes in mainstream procurement policy, the development of domestic codes of good business practice, and global initiatives. Th is paper draws largely on business models and policy innovation from empirical research, case studies, and country-level multistakeholder chainwide learning events undertaken through a global program entitled Regoverning Markets program

Addressing policy challenges for more sustainable local-global food chains : policy frameworks and possible food ‘futures’

© 2016 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons by Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).The article considers how policy can address the local–global within a wider commitment to food sustainability and draws on research conducted for the EU-funded GLAMUR project (Global and local food assessment: a multidimensional performance-based approach). Case study data identifies four key policy challenges for policymakers. Addressing these challenges in order to make links between current (and future) more sustainable food policy involves three phases. The first identifies processes of engagement in three spheres (public policy, the market and civil society); the second identifies points of engagement offered by existing policy initiatives at global, EU, national and sub-national policy levels; and the third builds scenarios as possible “food futures”, used to illustrate how the project’s findings could impact on the “bigger policy picture” along the local–global continuum. Connections are made between the policy frameworks, as processes and points of engagement for food policy, and the food “futures”. It is suggested that the findings can help support policymakers as they consider the effects and value of using multi-criteria interventions.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Inclusive agrifood markets : emerging findings from a programme of research and policy development

Agrifood market restructuring is occurring rapidly in most countries, and substantial restructuring at the retail and food industry level is not always matched at farm-level. The modernization of procurement systems in supply chains needs to include small-scale farmers’ growth opportunities. The work of the Regoverning Markets programme responds directly to this challenge. This policy brief describes the design of an international research and policy development programme, which aims to identify the keys to inclusion of small-scale producers in modern and dynamic domestic and regional markets. It also presents the emerging findings and their implications

Innovation in Business Models and Chainwide Learning for Market Inclusion of Smallholder Producers

Th e potential for modern agribusiness to promote broad-based economic growth in developing and emerging market economies is significant. Food retailers, wholesalers, and processors have the potential to link smallholder producers to dynamic domestic and regional markets. They can contribute technical and managerial capacity building and investment. However,this potential is often underutilized, and in many countries, smallholder producers and small- and medium-scale enterprises are relegated to lower value markets. While agribusiness is not, nor should it be, driven primarily by a development imperative, the retail and processing stages rarely see the reach of their actions at the production level, including the implications for smallholder producers. Furthermore, many recent initiatives, often working with development partners, seldom result in any lasting economic empowerment or sustained market engagement of smallholder farmers or their organizations. In many countries, there is little policy dialogue between the private and public sectors and other key stakeholders, including farmers’ organizations and civil society. This paper explores the business challenge of and case for smallholder producers’ market inclusion. It looks at some of the evidences that demonstrates how business models and business processes can succeed in securing market inclusion. It includes producer- and buyer-driven business models, the development of new market intermediaries, changes in mainstream procurement policy, the development of domestic codes of good business practice, and global initiatives. Th is paper draws largely on business models and policy innovation from empirical research, case studies, and country-level multistakeholder chainwide learning events undertaken through a global program entitled Regoverning Markets program

Coffee and carbon offsets for smallholders: can carbon financing promote cleaner coffee in Nicaragua?

This report looks at the ongoing PASCAFEN-CamBio2 project (Sustainable Agriculture in Coffee Plantations in Nicaragua) to understand the potential of carbon-offset funding for smallholder agriculture in coffee-producing landscapes. Carbon emission reductions in the project are expected over the course of 20 years via the establishment and maintenance of aerial biomass (trees in the coffee agroforestry system), soil carbon biomass from composting, and avoided emissions from nitrogen reductions. The project is expected to produce higher coffee yields, better disease control, improved coffee quality and a reduction in defective coffee beans, and important socio-economic benefits by improving income and livelihoods and strengthening farmer organisations. Business benefits along the value chain will be enhanced by improving environmental resilience at the production end of the value chain, and instruments like insetting (offsetting within existing value chains) can provide important funding to ensure long-term stability. The project is based on the principle that small-scale farmers deliver important services to the environment through projects like organic agriculture, and that upscaling these actions can have major significance for national climate change strategies

Organic coffee production and carbon sequestration in Guatemala: can carbon financing promote sustainable agriculture?

In Guatemala, we study a coffee project claiming carbon credits through its organic practices. Compared to conventional large-scale coffee production, the organic practices of smallholder farmers in the north of Guatemala provide a number of environmental benefits, including capturing and storing carbon dioxide in biomass and soil. The Educational Corporation for Costa Rican Development (CEDECO) has created the CamBio2 methodology to quantify the land’s carbon stock and issue carbon credits. The project provides a good illustration of the potential of combining organic coffee in smallholder production with carbon markets. However, the costs involved in developing these markets are still too high, given the uncertainty of payments. How can future revenues be used to promote organic agriculture beyond the pilot project? This case study forms part of the Hivos-IIED Payments for Ecosystem Services for Smallholder Agriculture series, exploring the potential of carbon offset funding in relation to smallholder agriculture