Publication: Working with Smallholders: A Handbook for Firms Building Sustainable Supply Chains
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2019
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2018-05-01
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The purpose of Working with Smallholders handbook is to enable the development of more sustainable, resilient and productive supply chains for agribusinesses and to illustrate the substantial development impact. Smallholder farmers are both an opportunity and a challenge for food and agribusiness companies. The predominance of smallholders in many frontier and emerging markets makes them an integral part of agribusiness supply chains. Many firms source from smallholders or are actively seeking to source from them. Calls for fairer, more inclusive supply chains will hasten this trend. Yet the development and strengthening of smallholder supply chains remains a key challenge for many IFC agribusiness clients. Working with Smallholders handbook compiles innovative solutions and cutting-edge ideas for these challenges. The handbook incorporates a diverse collection of hands-on case studies from across the world regions covering wide variety of agribusiness sectors. The 1st edition of IFCās Handbook Working with Smallholders (2014) has become one of IFC Agribusiness Advisory Services flagship publications and received positive feedback primarily because it strikes a good balance between serious technical content and an accessible presentation style. In the three years since the original publication there have been numerous changes in approaches and methodologies. We also have a larger compilation of lessons learnt from project implementation. Because of these changes we have prepared the 2nd edition that highlights leading trends and technologies relevant to the work with the smallholders.
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āInternational Finance Corporation. 2019. Working with Smallholders: A Handbook for Firms Building Sustainable Supply Chains. Ā© International Finance Corporation. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29764 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.ā
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Publication Working with Smallholders(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-09-18)A number of global trends, such as concurrent rises in incomes and urbanization, are driving the increased consumption of meat, dairy, and biofuels. Meeting the demand for products will require considerable increases in global production, particularly in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, where smallholder farming predominates and yields remain low. At the same time, it will be essential to promote improved food quality, to reduce negative impacts on health, while additional initiatives must address how to reduce food losses. Climate change is bringing further stressors. These challenges also present opportunities to help smallholder farmers boost their productivity by facilitating better access to inputs, technology, knowledge, financing, and markets. Agribusinesses are increasingly working with smallholder farmers in low- and middle-income countries to secure agricultural commodities, which help to boost rural incomes and economic growth. Smallholders also represent a growing market for farm inputs, information, and financial services. 'Working with Smallholders: A Handbook for Firms Building Sustainable Supply Chains' shows agribusinesses how to develop more sustainable, resilient, and productive supply chains and the substantial impact of doing so on development. The book compiles innovative solutions and cutting-edge ideas to meet the challenges, and illustrating these points through a variety of case studies from initiatives around the world. This third edition builds on the lessons learned and provides updates in leading trends and technologies from those provided in the second edition published in 2018 including the potential for digital technologies and increased demands for sustainable farming. Although written principally to outline training and assistance needs and opportunities for the private sector -- whether in high-income or low- and middle-income markets -- the handbook may be useful to the staffs of governmental or nongovernmental agricultural development programs working with smallholders, as well as to academic and research institutions.Publication Stories of Impact : Agribusiness(Washington, DC, 2014-06-01)By 2050, it is estimated that the world s agricultural system will need to produce approximately 50 percent more food to feed an estimated 9 billion people. In emerging markets, agriculture is the most important economic sector and source of employment; more specifically, 75 percent of the world s poor live in rural areas and depend on agriculture for their incomes. With volatility in food prices putting additional pressure on social and political systems, increasing global demand for scarce resources, widespread droughts, and rising concerns over food safety issues, sustainable agricultural development is an urgent priority. IFC also contributes to transforming agribusiness at the country level by working with groups of smallholders and industry associations. For instance, IFC has helped to upgrade the operations of Cambodian rice farmers and millers so that their national industry can compete on an international level. In the following pages, there will be numerous illustrations of the work that we do with our private sector clients, typically combining finance and advice. This powerful combination of money and knowledge helps our clients not only sustain but also grow their businesses, thereby paving the way for robust job creation, growth, and positive environmental and social benefits.Publication A Harvest of Practical Insights(Washington, DC, 2012)This IFC SmartBook is a compilation of sixteen IFC SmartLessons that presents practical lessons learned by staff from across the IFC and the World Bank on approaches for engaging in agriculture that have led to success. Agribusiness is a crucial economic sector, for food security of course, for managing water stress and ecosystem services, but also as a source of employment in emerging markets. The report includes the following lessons. Sowing the seeds of sustainability : a case project with Unifrutti, IFC, and smallholder banana farmers in the Philippines, by Natalie Macawaris, Colin Taylor, and Carla Zamora-Galinato. 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The fun and the defiance of innovation : going redd in the forests of Mexico, by Graciela Reyes Retana, MarĆa Carolina Hoyos, and Laurent Debroux. More than just hot air : carbon market access and climate-smart agriculture for smallholder farmers, by Johannes Woelcke. Go lite ! Increasing scale and impact by combining diagnostics and training lessons from the Ukraine food safey project, by sarah ockman. Keeping it fresh! : how new packaging and distribution improved the fruit and vegetable supply chain in Ukraine, by fedir rybalko and ebbe johnson. To WII or not to WII? : practical lessons from implementing weather index insurance for agriculture, by the Agricultural Risk Management Team of the Agriculture and Rural Development Department of the World Bank. Supporting smallholders while promoting farmer-controlled cooperatives in china, by Achim Fock and Jun Zhao. Connecting fruit suppliers and processors : a comprehensive approach in Ukraine, by Oksana Varodi. It's all about teamwork : unlocking opportunities for agribusiness in Ukraine, by Alberto Criscuolo and Shaela Rahman.Publication The Fruit of Her Labor : Promoting Gender-Equitable Agribusiness in Papua New Guinea(Washington, DC, 2014-06-30)The overall goal of this report is to assist the World Bank Group (WBG) to achieve greater impact for women from its current activities in agribusiness in Papua New Guinea (PNG), and to provide clear recommendations on additional interventions aimed at improving outcomes for women. The report focuses on the supply chains for coffee, cocoa, and horticultural products (fresh produce), as there is a wealth of knowledge on these supply chains and on gender issues, and these provide the best opportunity to identify entry points for follow-up activities. Given the importance of smallholders in PNG, and the need to understand gender dynamics in farming, this report pays particular attention to the roles and constraints faced by smallholders, without in so doing wishing to diminish the importance of the roles played by other actors in these supply chains.Publication Handshake, No. 5 (April 2012)(International Finance Corporation, Washington, DC, 2012-04)This issue includes the following headings: seeds and soil: smallholder agriculture; innovation: pairing commercial buyers with rural producers; grain storage: a ready role for public-private partnerships (PPPs); agricultural clusters: powering Africas agricultural potential; and interviews: AgDevCo, bill and Melinda gates foundation, earth policy institute.
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