Millions of smallholders live in poverty, unable to meet basic needs. Smallholder farmers need to improve their incomes and competitiveness if they are to achieve and sustain a decent standard of living, reinvest in their farms, and continue to supply a sustainable crop to multinational companies. The business benefits of investing in smallholder supply chains…
Addressing malnutrition in value chains can be good for business: it can contribute to higher productivity and contribute to the integrity of brands. But, when and how to measure ‘nutrition’ can be complex and what can be done is not always straightforward. Join us for an introduction by the Sustainable Food Lab (www.sustainablefood.org), and presentations by Bärbel Weiligmann and Christina Nyhus Dhillon, nutritionist…
Despite the title, this blog is not about sex, unless we consider the teeming reproductive activity of billions of micro-organisms in every tablespoon of fertile soil. I’m writing for those who wonder how important soil health is. Over the years, advocates for sustainable agriculture have promoted the importance of many different goals: fewer pesticides, less…
Several organizations are using Farm Economic Models as “thinking tools” to inform strategy by looking at how different variables in different magnitudes and times affect outcomes in specific contexts. More granularly, a farm economic model will allow the mapping of how a farm of a certain size, age, crop, location, etc. would respond to certain…
Sustainable livelihoods are the goal of countless initiatives, leaving many wondering if and how companies and organizations can effectively measure income gains and improvements beyond adoption of good agricultural practices. Mars, Inc. opened the discussion by illustrating why measuring income is important to their business, both for securing a sustainable supply of raw materials and ensuring…
We often focus on farm or value chain and landscape level initiatives. This presentation looked at the benefits of sector development and ways to measure health and progress over time at the sector level. Gatsby Foundation and AidEnvironment, in its works with IIED and the Food Lab, paint two pictures of why they work on sector…
Measuring adoption of good agricultural practices by farmers is a key metric and some argue the only reliable way to track the impact of agricultural interventions on issues such as and higher yields and quality. There are many approaches to increase practice adoption (for example, a focus on empowering farmers to make decisions rather than…
Nutrition is increasingly being identified as a key challenge within sourcing communities and an area where companies and their implementing are focusing more time and resources to investigate the nutritional situation on the ground and provide services to improve nutritional diversity and food security. This work has been described as a “no regret” intervention. However,…
A senior sustainability leader commented the other day that sustainable sourcing programs might be in danger of hitting their targets while missing the point. As sustainability is operationalized, we might be in the weeds of compliance and lose sight of larger goals. Sustainable sourcing generally requires asking suppliers to complete self-assessment questionnaires that can be…
Speakers: Ileana Resendez, Heifer; Cheryl Pinto, Ben and Jerry’s; Jefferson Shriver, CRS Living Income key points: Incorporating a Living Income (LI) approach is a much slower initial process with partners, but in the long run it does lead to a structural focus on LI. It is not meant as a social engineering approach. The awareness of the…