Agriculture

Sustainable Agriculture to Reduce Poverty

Four lessons for businesses wanting to build more equitable supply chains through sustainable sourcing

We have seen during Covid-19 the importance of strengthening value chains so they can withstand external shocks and market volatility in the long term. James Jenkins share recommendations for businesses embarking on sustainable sourcing projects in developing countries so they can truly achieve impact for farming communities, in addition to commercial and sustainability goals.
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Peg Willingham

Peg Willingham is the Executive Director of Fairtrade America. Fairtrade’s mission to work with businesses, farmers and workers certifying products as ethically and sustainably sourced is more important than ever. Listen to this podcast to hear Peg share her insights of the compounded effects of COVID-19 on many of the world’s poorest farmers;
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If it is broke, do fix it Rebuilding better agriculture and food systems – and what business can do to help

From Europe to the US and beyond, coronavirus exposed huge vulnerabilities in systems worldwide. Nowhere was the damage more keenly felt than in developing countries, where incomes disappeared, savings soon followed, and food security cratered seemingly overnight. The livelihoods that Covid-19 broke so quickly will take years to rebuild, just as they did the first time. Given how readily they crumbled, can we afford the build them back the same?
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Upcoming Online Event: Tackling Poverty in Global Value Chains

As part of Business Fights Poverty NYC Online 2020, Mars, AB InBev, Oxfam and UNDP will share insights from their establishment of The Farmer Income Lab, a collaborative “think-do-tank”, that aims to ask the right questions, create solutions and inspire action to build global supply chains that work for farmers and for business. This article provides an introduction to the founding and initial insights of the Farmer Income Lab, which will be further explored in the online session.
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Strange Bedfellows or Logical Partners? Collaboration Between the Agriculture and Mining Sectors to ‘Build Forward Better’

Following the panel discussion on Cross-Sector Collaboration at Business Fights Poverty Online 2020, the Global Agribusiness Alliance at WBCSD and the International Council on Mining and Metals share some reflections.
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Evaluation gaps, challenges and implications: Responsible business initiatives for sustainable supply chains?

Evidence on voluntary sustainability standards effectiveness and impact is strengthening, but little evidence exists on the efficacy of growing numbers of Responsible Business Initiatives (RBIs) which focus on entire corporate sustainability. Some are mature (e.g. corporate codes), others are more recent (e.g. sectoral multi-stakeholder initiatives, supplier capacity strengthening approaches, benchmarking initiatives, mobilizing investors). But quality evidence and rigorous synthesis is generally very thin across the board.
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The data revolution must accelerate food sustainability

Mobile payment systems, artificial intelligence, blockchain—such digital innovations have exploded in the last few years, and with good reason. Their capacity to harness vast amounts of data means they can improve transparency and decision-making for all kinds of industries—not least of all, for food production.
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The Cost of Cash to Ghana’s Cocoa Sector

Ghana is among the world’s leaders in the use of mobile money, but shockingly, the cocoa sector still pays upwards of 7 billion cedis (US$1.2 billion) every year in cash and checks to purchasing clerks, who then transfer it to farmers in cash. This means over 90% of the farmer transactions are still made in cash. Our organizations have released today new analysis showing that the costs and risk of cash to the cocoa sector are valued at more than $20 million every year, or more than 20% of turnover for all LBCs.
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Fairtrade and the COVID-19 response – lessons for business and the food system

The rapid spread of COVID-19 and the resulting global restrictions, challenged everyone involved in the production of food all over the world. Fairtrade is no exception, working as we do with over 1.6 million farmers and workers supplying the UK’s supermarkets.
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How to Safeguard the Livelihoods of Women Farmers and Entrepreneurs during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Among its many impacts, the COVID-19 pandemic has the potential to reverse recent gains to women’s economic empowerment. This article by TechnoServe Gender Director Cristina Manfre presents a strategy to ensure that the global community’s response to the pandemic safeguards against the risks to women’s livelihoods and enables them to help lead the economic recovery.
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Three ways sustainable supply chains can help build better business in a COVID-19 world 

The COVID-19 pandemic has shaken the world in profound and unexpected ways. The jury is still out on how severe and lasting the economic damage will be, or whether the pandemic will spur urgently needed action on climate change, rising inequality and sustainable development. One thing we can all agree on is that “normal” will look different going forward.  
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What smallholder cotton farmers need to build financial and agricultural resilience

Learning from the COVID-19 pandemic, what actions can be taken by businesses, governments and supply chain partners to build resilience in smallholder cotton farmers to withstand future shocks? CottonConnect asked farmers in India and Pakistan what they needed, and makes recommendations for increasing agricultural, financial and market linkage resilience.
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Which supermarkets are doing the most to protect the rights of food workers?

As the Coronavirus pandemic drives home the importance of the frontline workers producing and supplying our food, Oxfam’s Behind the Barcodes campaign to improve the conditions of people in supermarket supply chains is more relevant than ever.
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Fairtrade Calls for Full Sector Response to Shore up Cocoa Farmer’s Livelihoods Through the Crisis

I am really pleased to announce that, this week, we’ve launched our Cocoa Sustainable Livelihoods Landscape Study. Co-authored by Naomi Somerville-Large and Antonio Capillo at the Fairtrade Foundation, this study is published as part of our partnership with Cocoa Life – Mondelēz International’s global cocoa sustainability programme. 
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Rebuild Better: How to Support Farmers and Workers Through the COVID-19 Crisis and Beyond

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called for nations to ensure that the recovery plan for the Covid 19 crisis creates a fairer, more sustainable world, with six green ambitions at the heart of his proposed strategy. With nation states jostling up against each other it’s unclear how the new power dynamics will look once the dust has settled, and what the appetite or potential might be for this kind of unprecedented shared effort.
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Closing the Living Income Gap for Farmers – From Theory to Practice

We know that farmers are earning revenues from cocoa that are far below what they need to enjoy a living income. The challenge we now face is how to change this? How can we assist farmers to grow their incomes and bridge the gap, and moreover, how might we build resilience and security into livelihood systems as we go?
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What’s the Impact of Sustainable Farming on Smallholder Suppliers in Ethiopia?

In Ethiopia, the agriculture sector employs more than 70 per cent of the country’s population of 105 million people. Recently, Ethiopian farmers have been particularly vulnerable to the devastating impacts of the locust invasion affecting the country.
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Sinead Duffy

During this podcast we hear from Sinead Duffy. Sinead is the Head of NGO Engagement at one of the world’s major life science companies focused on health and agriculture, Bayer. Sinead shares with us how business can support those most vulnerable during the COVID-19 global crisis
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Don’t Allow the Coronavirus to Open Up Another Front

Healthcare workers are valiantly fighting, and too often dying, on the front lines in the global response to coronavirus. But what started as a health crisis could turn into a food crisis unless we take measures now. Preventing a food crisis is key to maintaining the strength to fight back.​
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Fairtrade Together: COVID-19 Briefing

Fairtrade is gathering updates from around the world about how COVID-19 is affecting producer organizations, family farmers, and workers.​
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What do we mean by "Agriculture"?

Discover how sustainable agriculture techniques can reduce poverty by promoting environmental health and increasing food security.

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