New Oxfam Discussion Paper: Private Investment in Agriculture

An Oxfam Discussion Paper, authored by Erinch Sahan and Monique Mikhail, released in 2012, lays out the need for huge investment in agriculture in developing countries. Both public and private sector investment is needed but investments must promote production in a manner that ‘does no harm’ and that ‘does more good’.

The key roles for the public sector should be to support the most vulnerable small-scale food producers, those who the private sector has little incentive to engage with, and to create the right policy environment to allow the private sector to invest. But, as the paper points out, agriculture is ‘inherently a private sector endeavour’ and thus requires private investment, both large and small.

While the paper notes that private sector investment could have a positive impact it caveats this with the warning that investments must follow ethical and sustainable business practices. From Oxfam’s work on mobilising the private sector to support smallholder farmers, certain principles have emerged which they document in this paper. The private sector should invest in staple crops, local and regional markets, processing, access to services, sustainable agriculture as well as work with producer organisations and focus on women’s empowerment. Oxfam believe that private and public sector investment should complement each another and that when private sector investment is coupled with the right enabling environment, this investment can be transformational to economic growth, environmental sustainability and poverty reduction.

Connecting Farmers to Markets Through Ethical Partners

Smallholder farmers, estimated to number some 500 million, are often disconnected from formal and export food markets. But new opportunities for linking retailers in Europe and the US with producers in Africa are emerging.

Some of the barriers smallholder farmers face in making these connections, as discussed in a new paper authored by Abbi Buxton and Bill Vorley of the International Institute for Environment and Development, include the high standard of products retailers require, timely delivery of products, and certification.

The paper discusses a four year project, which investigated new business models to address these barriers. The project was in collaboration with the Sustainable Food Laboratory, Catholic Relief Services, Rainforest Alliance and The International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The project examined four different value chains, this paper, the first in a series of four, looked at flowers in Kenya.