iDE UK CEO Lewis Temple spoke about pioneering iDE Farm Business Advisor (FBA) scheme at recent event in Stockholm.

On 26^th November, Sida’s Innovations Against Poverty programme held their first ever Conference and Awards ceremony in the Waterfront Congress Centre in Stockholm. Innovations Against Poverty challenges the private sector to develop products, services and business models that can contribute to poverty reduction and combat climate change. The conference was aimed at bringing together like-minded entrepreneurs, incubators and business practitioners to meet and share ideas about private sector development. As part of their mission to help innovative private sector development, IAP have awarded iDE UK a €20,000 grant to fund an initiative bringing the FBA model to Mozambique.

Of the many speakers from the day, Lewis was invited to share iDE UK’s thinking on innovative solutions to combat poverty. Drawing on the Nestle Creating Shared Value award winning Farm Business Advisor (FBA) scheme in Cambodia, Lewis was able to demonstrate what can be achieved in Mozambique. These schemes train local entrepreneurs to sell agricultural inputs such as fertiliser and seeds to local smallholder farmers, as well as provide support and advice in order to help farmers grow market oriented crops. This approach ensures that farmers are able to improve their agricultural productivity, thereby enabling them to generate a stable income that can dramatically improve their living standards, and reduce food insecurity. This also provides FBA’s with a sustainable livelihood and income. In Cambodia FBA’s currently work with over 15,000 farmer clients, with over 7,500 originating from the poorest third of the population. In Mozambique we estimate that farmers could increase their income by £186 a year, with FBA’s increasing their income by up to £621 a year.

IAP is particularly interested in the franchise model, whereby Farm Business Advisors act as franchisees linked to a central franchisor that provides training and business support. In this way, FBA’s are individual entrepreneurs, yet operate under the brand, training and products of the wider scheme. This model presents a viable solution to the problem of getting the right products and services the last mile, to reach the poorest and most isolated farmers.

Lewis reported that “Innovations Against Poverty are unusual in that they are prepared to take risks by investing in businesses trying to reach poorest. In this way, they are leading the way in grant funding by enabling businesses to effectively reach the bottom of the pyramid.” He added that the event “was an excellent opportunity to bring together amazing entrepreneurs working across Africa and Asia. Everyone was able to share experiences and inspire one another. I was delighted to be part of the programme and am already looking forward to next year’s event.”

We would also like to say congratulations to sanitation initiative Sanergy, who won the main prize of Social Innovator of the Year! Sanergy creates hygienic and sustainable sanitation solutions which use less concrete in production, can be assembled much more rapidly, and use waste cartridges which can be removed with greater ease compared to traditional toilets.

This blog post was originally published on the iDE UK Blog.

Find out more about iDE UK and our Farm Business Advisor programme.

Take a look at Lewis’ presentation from the conference.