Publication database

This report takes stock of the increasingly pluralistic landscape of agricultural small- and medium-sized enterprise (agri-SME) finance in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, with the aim to establish a new perspective on the market overall - sizing and segmenting the market in new ways, reflecting on the rapidly accelerating imperative around climate, and identifying new priorities for action.

Between November 2018 and November 2019, Gates Foundation and Mars Edge discussed collaboration opportunities to accelerate the urban go-to-market strategy of Mars Edge’s nutritious savory snack GoMo™, specifically designed to help address nutritional deficiencies of 6-18 year olds in India, with a focus on reaching low-income consumers. The Growth for Growth (G4G) network of service providers set up by the Foundation’s PSP program co-designed this strategy to reach lower-income urban areas. In December 2019, the PSP approved a grant to assess and adapt the model during a market test. As part of the grant, the collaboration between G4G and Mars then continued until December 2020. This case study aims to share the lessons learned throughout this journey, in terms of public-private collaboration and innovation process.

Government, NGO, and business leaders typically see great promise for digital tools to empower smallholder value chains and make them more efficient and profitable for farmers. However, new technologies only reach scale when they are delivered within a functioning business model. By observing the full range of solutions that have been developed across the ASEAN region, Grow Asia sees startups migrating to five business models which seem to show the greatest potential in reaching smallholder farmers at scale. This report provides an overview of those five business models, namely Digital Advisory, Peer-to-Peer Lending, Traceability, Digital Marketplaces and Mechanization Platforms, and why they show the greatest promise.

India is the largest producer and consumer of spices in the world today. However, the scope of agrarian production in India, positions sustainability as an immediate and fundamental topic demanding attention on account of non-discriminate use of agrochemicals, farmer livelihood, labour issues and health & safety.

To address these challenges, Sustainable Spices Initiative – India (SSI-I) has designed Sustainable Agricultural Practices (SAP) handbook, in collaboration with Indian Institute of Spice Research (IISR), that lays down a package of practices for sustainable spices production.

The Bhungroo system helps smallholder farmers harvest rainwater throughout the monsoon season so they can use it during the dry season. This report details monitoring and evaluation of the recent installation of 52 Bhungroo systems among the poorest smallholder farmers of Harij in Gujarat’s Patan district.

In order to ascertain the potential of production & processing of spices in the North East Region (specifically in Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland) along with the hill state of Uttarakhand, and to suggest a scalable and market driven way forward, YES BANK in association with IDH conducted an extensive study on establishing a “Business Case for Production and Processing of Spices” in the identified states. The report provides strategic recommendations for spices sector to augment sustainable production practices, value addition, marketability and branding from the identified states. I am confident that the contents of this publication will serve as a useful reference for the industry and prospective investors for planning a range of initiatives in the Spices sector in the identified geography.

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.

OECD and FAO have developed this Guidance to help enterprises observe standards of responsible business conduct and undertake due diligence along agricultural supply chains in order to ensure that their operations contribute to sustainable development. The Guidance comprises:

• A model enterprise policy outlining the standards that enterprises should observe to build responsible agricultural supply chains;
• A framework for risk-based due diligence describing the five steps that enterprises should follow to identify, assess, mitigate and account for how they address the adverse impacts of their activities;
• A description of the major risks faced by enterprises and the measures to mitigate these risks;
• Guidance for engaging with indigenous peoples.

ITGI piloted radio frequency identification devices to address problems with claims. It used the introduction as an opportunity to change its processes. Find out how these changes allowed it to better serve its clients and improve the viability of the scheme in Case Brief #2.