Agriculture is a source of livelihoods for an estimated 2.5 billion people globally. It provides jobs for 1.3 billion smallholders and landless workers. Thus, it has enormous potential to reduce rural poverty. Yet agribusinesses are usually built around a small number of large-scale suppliers ignoring that 85% of the world’s farms are managed by small-scale…
French-style green beans flow every day from remote farmers in Guatemala to Costco stores throughout North America. They pass through the Cuatro Pinos Cooperative and the Los Angeles Salad Company, who provide technical assistance to farmers and prepare the beans for sale to North American consumers. A Costco executive, through her participation in the Sustainable Food…
Indicators of Poverty and Hunger in Coffee Supply Chains When Green Mountain Coffee Roasters decided to measure the impact of their CSR programs, they asked the Sustainable Food Lab and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) for help. Together, they went into producer communities to identify useful indicators (in partnership with the growers themselves) that would enable…
Small-scale farmers, who form the bedrock for global agrifood supply, are faced with agrifood markets in an unprecedented state of flux. Domestic markets are undergoing rapid but uneven modernization, and higher value and export markets are increasingly the preserve of larger scale suppliers. Inclusive business models as those which do not leave behind small-…
Review of the role of commodity exchanges in supporting smallholder farmer market linkages and income benefits Recently the government of Ethiopia mandated that all of the navy bean trade is to done through the new commodity exchange. But the new business models for sustainable trading relationships team has been working on this crop in Ethiopia…
Food and beverage companies are facing a rapidly changing world. Consumers everywhere are growing more knowledgeable and concerned about the ethics of where and how their food and drink are produced. At the same time, development organizations are increasingly seeing the critical role of the private sector in creating sustainable economic opportunities for small…
Under What Conditions Are Value Chains Effective Tools for Pro Poor Development? Understanding the benefits, costs, and risks when connecting small scale producers to formal markets is critical to supporting informed decision making by companies, farmers, NGOs, and donors about investing in supply chain opportunities. Key questions include: Who are the rural poor? Under what…