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WORKSHOP REPORT: Consultative workshop on sustainable food value chain focusing on agricultural inputs, primary production & traders

  • Published on October 13, 2021
Workshop objectives:
• Introduce the value-chain approach as adopted by the One Planet-International Resources Panel
Task Group.
• Provide key findings of the analysis of the food value chain with the focus on agricultural inputs,
primary production & traders.
• Understand the role of the agricultural inputs, primary production and traders in the food value
chain and its dependencies on other stages.
• Understand what initiatives/solutions currently exist at this stage of the food value chain to:
o define the opportunities for their scale-up and replication;
o identify gaps and challenges to be addressed;
o identify actions needed by stakeholders at other stages of the food value chain to improve
resource efficiency at primary production.
MAIN MESSAGES
o The application of the ‘Value-Chain Approach’ to analyse the food sector showed that the middle
stages of the food value chain -- controlled by food companies across processing and packaging,
retail and food services -- are structurally powerful and have a disproportionate influence across
both primary production and final consumption. Actors at these stages have a huge impact on the
activities at either end in determining both what food farmers sell and what food consumers buy.
o More specifically, in relation to agricultural inputs, primary production & traders stages:
- There is a high degree of consolidation in the agricultural input industry, with a small
number of companies controlling inputs on which farmers depend.
- Farmers and fishers are fragmented and find themselves in a weak position where they
are compelled to accept the prices, standards and contract terms offered to them by
food companies, with limited capacity to negotiate. Many farmers in traditional food
systems suffer from a lack of physical and institutional infrastructure to improve
productivity and profitability.
- Traders, an important player in the food value chain, are the closest link to farmers.
Depending on the commodity agricultural traders can be either highly consolidated (e.g.
grain) or fragmented (e.g. palm oil). Big import/export companies are increasingly
involved in other stages of the food value chain including production, processing &
distribution.
o The importance of traders in the food value chain was highlighted by the additional research on
the middle stages of the food value chain undertaken by 3Keel in collaboration with WWF.
Transport was acknowledged as an important transversal sector. The diagram of the food value
chain1 is amended as follows:
o Effective mechanisms for participatory and inclusive processes for policy development need to be
rethought and established. They should be based on the real needs and realities of the
stakeholders, especially farmers, to manage tradeoffs. These can be elaborated at local and
regional levels to define the vision supported by concrete outcomes.
o Access to markets and finance remains a big challenge for smallholder farmers. There is a need to
build the connection between the farming and the investment community to ensure their
alignment when it comes to the requirements and the reality of making the production systems
sustainable.
o Public procurement, as a strong enabler of sustainable farming practices, should be leveraged.
Potential is identified within school feeding programmes that procure food from agroecological
farm, improving nutrition, educating and raising awareness, and contributing to the reduction of
resource use and environmental impact of the primary production.
o Certifications, connecting production and consumption stages, present an opportunity for systems
change. Certifications should be streamlined and measures to reduce their costs adopted.

Supporting document(s)

food_workshop_report %281%29.pdf
English
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