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El proyecto que se presenta en esta publicación tiene como objetivo la mejora de la nutrición de población en riesgo del Departamento del Cauca y del Valle del Cauca, en Colombia, a través del consumo de Frucap, un producto altamente nutritivo y funcional que se canaliza a la población vulnerable a través de compras públicas y otras entidades del sector alimentario. Sin embargo, el gran éxito y aprendizaje del proyecto no se basa sólo en la accesibilidad del producto Frucap para poblaciones con deficiencias nutricionales, sino en el modelo de negocio inclusivo que hay detrás de su producción y desarrollo.

Commissioned by the Netherlands Enterprise Agency, this report presents an analysis of four smallholder support programmes in South Africa.

The aim of this report is to identify how commercial businesses can generate employment opportunities in rural areas through inclusive business models.

Commissioned by the Netherlands Enterprise Agency, this report presents a practically oriented Theory of Change to develop business models for successful and sustainable smallholder integration into commercial value chains.

Inclusive businesses (IBs), embodying partnerships between commercial agribusinesses and smallholder farmers/low-income communities, are considered to contribute towards rural development and agricultural sector transformation. Structured as complex organizational setups consisting of, and overcoming the limitations of, standard inclusive instruments, they allow for the inclusion of smallholders and low-income communities into commercial agricultural value chains. This publication explores if the commercial sector, through IB partnerships, contributes towards the government's transformation and developmental objectives

Contract farming (CF) agreements are presently being restructured to form part of more complex Inclusive Business (IB) set-ups. Additional instruments, alongside CF, are implemented to overcome the challenges of CF and to adapt to the policy environment in which the different stakeholders operate. This paper develops a theoretical framework that gives insight into how these complex entities are structured and operate in a developing country context. It finds that a high dependence by the offtaker in the first case study stimulates a higher level of commitment and investment by this stakeholder in the contract arrangement. In turn, this increases the asset specificity aspect, which then requires safeguards to ensure the smallholders adhere to the contractual agreement. A higher dependency in this particular study also resulted in a higher number of smallholders being engaged in the contract, requiring mechanisms to efficiently monitor and coordinate them.

Inclusive business is hailed as a win-win scenario for the development of smallholder farmers and poor communities; yet there is little insight into how these inclusive businesses work and, more importantly, for whom. This book aims for a thorough understanding of the range of inclusive businesses in agriculture by examining: the structures they implement, the actors involved, and whether they are effectively inclusive of smallholders. By offering a critical assessment of inclusive businesses overall, it allows for a better perception of what works where, and under which conditions. It provides useful insights that will benefit smallholders, agri-businesses, support groups, policy makers and investors who are willing to promote more inclusive businesses, that foster a better integration of smallholders into commercial value-chains and a more equitable and sustainable agricultural sector.

This paper is part of a series of papers on inclusive agribusiness written for the “Towards a Global Research and Learning Agenda for Inclusive Agribusiness” workshop in March 2017. This issue focuses on understanding and influencing enabling policies for Inclusive agribusiness (IAB). Despite the large number of IAB initiatives, little has been done in terms of meta-analysis regarding enabling and constraining policy factors and cross country comparison. A key issue is not just the policy settings, but also the processes and platforms by which business, policy and other actors engage to transparently work on improved enabling conditions. A knowledge and learning agenda would consequently need to look at both substantive policy issues and processes.