Publication database

As is the case elsewhere, in Africa, many people depend entirely on food systems for employment and incomes as well. For these reasons, building resilient and sustainable food systems is crucial to ensuring sustainable economies and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Agenda 2063 Goals. However, Africa remains food insecure, accounting for 256 million of the world’s 795 million people suffering from hunger. Against this challenge, this 2021 African Agriculture Status Report (AASR21) provides evidence and insights on the prospects of achieving resilience and sustainability in Africa’s food systems.

This report aggregates the voices of 6,000 Kenyan farmers interviewed between June 2020 and May 2021. They relate their lived experience during the Covid-19 pandemic and how livelihoods were adversely affected by supply chain disruptions and government lockdowns. 

As we collectively work towards achieving the SDGs by 2030, this volume of the Sahel Quarterly presents practical solutions by exploring ten critical trends in the African agriculture and food landscapes that stakeholders must prioritize in the next decade. From the growing number of agri-tech start-ups to the dramatic increases in the penetration of mobile technology across the continent, reliance on big data, and the growing demand for equality and inclusion at all levels, it is evident that the continent is at a tipping point. 

This report presents findings and best practices from idh's innovating partners with regards to empowering farmers through service delivery, while generating sustainable returns to their businesses. Learn more about their models’ drivers of farmer resilience, cost reduction and financial sustainability.  And get inspired, by service models helping millions of smallholder farmers out of poverty, in often remote areas and developing economies around the globe.

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.

This report contains four case studies on how some of the largest and most influential food and beverage companies and agribusinesses approach inclusive business: The Coca-Cola Company, The Kellogg Company, SABMiller/AB Inbev, and Syngenta.

This report provides analysis and key findings on the set-up and implementation of the mAgri mNutrion Initiative by GSMA. It provides insights to the design and impact of the services, with key considerations for existing service providers or those launching a new service. It also provide six case studies for a comprehensive snapshot of each service.

This publication outlines how the SDGs offer a compelling growth strategy for African business, pointing to an economic prize of at least US$1.1 trillion by 2030 for the African private sector and the potential to create 85 million new jobs. The report highlights opportunities in four sectors: food and agriculture, energy, health and cities.