Sustainability for Smallholders: How business can build resilience with smallholder farmers

Transcription

1 Sustainability for Smallholders: How business can build resilience with smallholder farmers Tuesday 22 nd Wednesday 23 rd March 2016 London, United Kingdom Two days of leading analysis, debate, discussion and networking. Background and purpose of the event This conference builds on the work of several Innovation Forum commodity-related business conferences covering sectors including palm oil, sugar and cotton that have identified smallholder farming as a critical factor for sustainability. This conference is a platform for discussion on the major risks to smallholder farmers across soft commodities and fresh produce, and how business can help to build effective resilience. Delegates will gain an in-depth understanding of smallholder farming challenges and opportunities. The conference is structured to provide a practical guide for the development of business programmes that will create resilience of the smallholder farmers that supply them. Objectives of the event To provide an overview of the major risks and opportunities associated with smallholder farming globally. To outline and discuss the most significant initiatives that have built the resilience of farmers and how they have progressed. To provide on-the-ground experience and ensure that business efforts are informed by having farmers at the discussion table. To provide delegates with actionable, practical guidance on how to get to grips with a resilience development strategy for their smallholder supply base.

2 Event audience and size This event is targeted mainly at businesses that source soft commodities and fresh produce grown by smallholders (such as fruit, sugar, cotton, palm oil, cocoa and tea). Some of the core stakeholders targeted include food and beverage brands, certification providers, traders, NGOs and the farmers themselves. We estimate that 200 corporate managers, directors, and heads of department will attend the conference alongside key NGOs, government officials, aid agencies and inter-governmental organisations. Sponsors of the event We are currently looking for a small number of sponsors to work with, to push forward progressive discussion on sustainable farming. Please contact Boris Petrovic if you would like to discuss being a sponsor for this event full details below. Chatham House rule Given the nature of the topics under discussion, and to promote open, candid dialogue, this conference will be held under the Chatham House rule of non-disclosure. Venue Inmarsat Conference Centre 99 City Road London United Kingdom EC1Y 1AX Contact for the event Boris Petrovic Project director, Innovation Forum Office: +44 (0) Direct: +44 (0) boris.petrovic@innovation-forum.co.uk

3 Day one Tuesday 22nd March Registration Opening remarks by the conference chairman Real, meaningful progress on smallholder engagement: Which sectors are ahead, and which lag behind? In this session we will outline macro trends affecting smallholder farming to provide an overall guide to the main risks and opportunities. This opening session will provide the context for business strategy when thinking about smallholder farming, and most of all why it is critical to engage with them. How to improve smallholder access to market? In this session we will discuss the factors affecting smallholders access to market. Discussing tariffs, trade and politics, the speakers will provide a picture of market access prospects for smallholders and the role business needs to play in order to secure and improve it. Are companies lobbying for the benefit of smallholders on trade issues? How is smallholder inclusion into corporate value chains evolving? Coffee break Is there a role for companies in fixing microfinance to really benefit smallholder farmers? Financial health is essential for a smallholder to stay in business and in production. This is one of the main risks that individual farmers face across different supply chains and on an ongoing basis. In this session we outline the existing financial systems that smallholders use and assess how secure/precarious they are. Between commodity production cycles, what is the cash flow of a farmer throughout a season? What financial innovations are coming through to help farmers? Is technology helping or complicating things? Do current microfinancing mechanisms work effectively? Are more companies financing farmers directly? Is that a growing trend and does it work? Can companies collaborate with retail finance institutions to get risk away from the farmers? Lunch

4 Capacity building track Social risks track Case studies Do cooperatives deliver for farmers? Stories of failure and success Cooperatives are often taken for granted as a good thing. But sometimes they put an individual farmer at a disadvantage. We will take a critical look at different cooperative models and examples to assess when they are of value for a farmer. How much slavery/forced labour is there in smallholder farming? How do you prevent it? Slavery is a moral abhorrence that has, until quite recently, received insufficient corporate attention in supply chains. In this session we will look at how present slavery is in smallholder farming and what can be done to eradicate it. Business case study 1 In this session we will get direct insight on how a leading company is addressing smallholder development and resilience Building farming community capacity and support networks All entities rely on ecosystems and infrastructure to function and thrive. A community naturally provides this support to farmers. In this session we will look at how to build capacity and support networks for farming communities. What initiatives have had the most impact and what do they look like? How to prevent landgrabbing in your supply chain Land-grabbing remains a significant human rights problem within agricultural supply chains, for example in palm oil and sugar. How can companies implement programmes that protect land rights in the markets that supply key commodities? Business case study 2 In this session we get direct insight on how a leading company is addressing smallholder development and resilience Afternoon break

5 Smallholder sustainability at scale: what are the lessons from across initiatives? The ability to create a formula that can deliver aggregate improvements over a large number of farmers is the holy grail of all sustainability initiatives. The focus of this discussion is scale, certification and efficacy. We will take a critical look at current sustainability certification schemes, as well as the programmes that brands have undertaken alone, to understand where these efforts have brought us. Is certification good for smallholders? How much have certification schemes improved the practices of the farmers under the programmes? How effective has certification been? How do you convince suppliers that certification is a worthwhile opportunity, and what s in it for them? Is there a third way between certification and stand-alone corporate initiatives? Evening networking reception

6 Day two Wednesday 23rd March Registration Farmer succession: How do we ensure people continue to grow crops? Succession planning and a general lack of interest in farming is a widespread and growing risk. Trends suggest that farming is an unattractive profession, but what can we do to address this? In this session we will investigate the reality of the succession crisis and the role of business in helping farmers generate sustainable and attractive livelihoods. What are the hard figures and truth about demographics trends and data? How pressing is this issue? Do the economics pay a part yields triple, for example, would farming become more attractive? Coffee break How is climate change affecting smallholder farming? Climate change is a major environmental challenge that producers, often entirely unknowingly, face. Climate change has the potential to distort weather patterns that will easily adversely affect output. This session will debate technology, innovation and how smallholders can proactively build environmental resistance for their crops. If we continue business-as-usual, what is the future climatic environment that farming will operate in? And what will be the likely effect on yield? What are the likely future environmental scenarios for climate change in different countries? Is there anything we can be doing now to proactively build environmental resilience and avert future supply shocks? GM crops, crop engineering and other technological developments provide some of the most viable options for resilience. How ready and effective are they? Lunch break

7 Breakouts Environmental risks track Economic risks track How to build water stress resilience There is no single factor more likely to cause crop failure than water. Water has been on the corporate sustainability agenda for some time but what has been achieved in the way of effective waterresilience strategies? Creating financial resilience for farmers: innovations in crop insurance and microfinancing As a follow up to the plenary on smallholder finance. In this informative session we will look at some case studies of financial innovations that have attempted to provide reliable finance to farmers through microfinancing, and de-risking through insurance Coffee break Understanding the risk of soil degradation and what you can do about it Soil health is one of the least understood and lowest profile issues within the sustainability debate. In this session we will provide an overview of what smallholder farmers and their customers need to know about soil health, the key risks and the potential business implications for better and worse soil health. How can companies work with governments to improve both institutional capacity and deliver together for farmers? Government engagement and collaboration is essential for effective, scalable improvements to take place. To exclude government from the process could be provocative and counterproductive. So as companies, how do you work with governments to benefit farmers? How to create a holistic strategy to build the resilience of your smallholder base In this final session we look to bring together the practical lessons from the two days of the conference. Taking examples from the companies that are meaningfully engaged with their supply chains, we will string together a actionable step-by-step guide to the key factors, questions and components necessary to ensure the sustainability and resilience of a smallholder supply base. Where do you start? What are the key partners you will need to engage with? How much investment do you need to throw at it? Are there any opportunities for pre-competitive collaboration? End of conference