Agriculture's Role in Poverty Reduction

The Coffee Price Crisis: How to Support More Sustainable Livelihoods for Farmers

The global coffee price crisis has drawn headlines around the world. But rather than view it as an isolated phenomenon, we must view at as part of a larger set of challenges affecting coffee farmers. To truly change the outlook for the world’s 12 million coffee-farming families, we must address these longstanding issues.

Agriculture

October 22, 2019

From Suicidal Depression to Social Entrepreneur: Creating a New $bn Industry for Rural Africa

15 years ago I was working in the London advertising industry, promoting products I didn’t believe in for clients who didn’t appreciate it. I ended up asking myself ‘What am I doing with my life?’

Agriculture, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Social Enterprises

August 27, 2019

Applying Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Methods in Cocoa Sustainability Program Evaluations

Working out whether or not your sustainability program is having the impact you intend is more complex than you might think. There’s heated debate among academics and practitioners around how to do it best, much of it pointing out that designing a perfect measurement methodology in theory is a lot more straightforward than applying it in practice. That said, most can agree that it’s a necessary exercise. With this blog, we add the Cocoa Life perspective to the debate.

Agriculture

August 26, 2019

Six Lessons: Learning from Impact Evaluation in Cocoa Farming

Understanding the impact of development interventions is a complex process. From picking the most suitable measurement and evaluation (M&E) methodology, to designing a suitable plan for implementing it in the field, there might appear to be endless hurdles to the uninitiated.

Agriculture

July 25, 2019

Doing Nothing is Not an Option

Impact is a word we hear all the time in sustainability circles. Often when we talk about impacts, we’re talking about reducing the negative ones. Causing less damage. But that’s not nearly enough, says Arjen Boekhold of Game Changer Unltd. and known from Tony’s Chocolonely.

Agriculture, Governance and Transparency

June 17, 2019

The Business Case for Climate-Resilient Agriculture

In Uganda, TechnoServe is partnering with Nile Breweries Limited and the Sustainable Food Lab to identify climate risks in sorghum and barley supply chains.

Agriculture, Climate & Environment, Climate Justice

June 7, 2019

Becoming a Bit More Social

Stories about terrible working conditions along supply chains keep emerging. From sweat shops to modern slavery – we reply on journalists to uncover horrible truths to spark change. But social enterprise organisations with traceable supply chains eliminate ambiguity and promote social change. I want to share why I think we should all become a little more social.

Agriculture

May 28, 2019

Smallholder Coffee Producer Organisations Can Thrive as International Businesses

Smallholders produce around 80% of the world’s coffee and brands rely on them for a steady supply. Yet, smallholder producer organisations (SPOs) have been tarnished with the image of being disorganised and slow. At Twin, we know that SPOs can thrive as international businesses that create sustainable supply chains. In our latest report, we demonstrate how.

Agriculture

May 15, 2019

New Ideas are Essential to Ward off Global Water Shortage Threat

Katharine Teague, Head of Advocacy at AB Sugar, explains why one of the world’s leading sugar businesses has created The Innovate Irrigation Challenge in partnership with WaterAid and the Centre for Industrial Sustainability at the University of Cambridge.

Agriculture, Water and Sanitation

May 7, 2019

Practical Action and the IKEA Foundation: Can Small Holder Farming Really Work for Some of the World’s Poorest?

Practical Action and the IKEA Foundation have launched a new partnership worth €6.4million. The partnership will work with 6,000 young smallholder farmers in rural Kenya. Currently, half of the world’s small holder farmers go hungry. The partnership aims to develop the learning and evidence to demonstrate that sustainable farming can provide decent livelihoods whilst protecting the environment.

Agriculture, Climate & Environment, Climate Justice

April 24, 2019

Water-Wise Coffee: Making Sustainable Business Profitable in Ethiopia

As greater traceability and ever-growing consumer interest in coffee origins increase the incentives for sustainable production, more opportunities to align profits and sustainability will emerge. If we are innovative and approach problems from a business perspective, we can help the supply chain grow even greener.

Agriculture, Climate & Environment, Climate Justice, Water and Sanitation

April 24, 2019

We Learned Simple Ways to Improve the Local Environment and Our Income

In the Nawa region in Côte d’Ivoire, Mondelēz International’s Cocoa Life partners with Impactum and CARE International to engage women and address climate change and deforestation through a Green Entrepreneurship pilot project. They are helping women learn the knowledge and skills needed to create a sustainable future for cocoa farming communities, and generate income for themselves and their communities.

Agriculture, Climate & Environment, Climate Justice, Gender

April 10, 2019

Forests, Farmers and Cococa: Getting the Balance Right

How can we find the right balance between protecting the forests, growing cocoa sustainably and helping the farmers? Darrell High talks about the action plan laid out by Nestle to help end deforestation and restore forests in the cocoa supply chain.

Agriculture, Climate & Environment, Climate Justice, Innovative Business Models

April 9, 2019

Spearheading Change within the Chocolate Industry to Protect the Forests where Cocoa is Grown

Forests in cocoa-growing areas are essential to our chocolate. They make cocoa farms more productive through diversification and providing shade, and help absorb carbon emissions, helping create a balanced ecosystem in farming communities. Unfortunately, these forests are under threat. Deforestation is a pressing issue that the industry has a responsibility to address.

Agriculture, Climate & Environment, Climate Justice

March 11, 2019

Highlighting the Plight of Woman Agricultural Workers in Coffee Production #BalanceforBetter International Women’s Day 2019

As we celebrate International Women’s Day 2019 and highlight the need to build a gender-balanced world, it is worth reflecting on the women working on coffee farms globally. Their work often goes unnoticed and their voices too often go unheard but there are also success stories.

Agriculture, Gender

March 7, 2019

A Transparent Cuppa – Mapping Our Tea and Coffee Supply Chains

As we enter the second week of Fairtrade Fortnight, it’s a time to celebrate our Fairtrade products and reflect on our hard work building strong relationships with our producers and working on programmes such as empowering women in the supply chain.

Agriculture, Gender, Governance and Transparency

March 6, 2019

The Tide is Coming in for Indonesia’s Seaweed

Do you know much about seaweed farming? No? Well, neither did we until our interest was piqued by a story in The Jakarta Post about a development project in Indonesia.

Agriculture, Gender, Global Goals, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises

February 21, 2019

CARE, Cargill and Communities: An Historic, Mutual Agenda for Change

The relationship that CARE has developed with Cargill over nearly 60 years has demonstrated that, with the right approach, the right relationships and the right ambition, partnerships can extend beyond simple financial transactions to really drive an NGO’s desired impact at scale.

Agriculture, Partnerships

February 19, 2019

Agriculture

Sustainable Agriculture to Reduce Poverty