inputs

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Value Chains

Two companies making trade fairer without 'fair trade'

When fair trade farming didn’t pay enough for one farmer to make ends meet, he started a new coffee company to take control of the production process and boost profits.

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Value Chains

Quotable: Land O'Lakes seeds economic opportunity and peace through dairy farming

How do you boost farmers in post-conflict regions like Sri Lanka? Jon Halverson of Land O'Lakes discusses how the U.S. dairy co-op blended commercial and development work in an interview on DevEx.

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Social Enterprise

TOMS Shoes and conscious consumerism’s 3 biggest sins

Many social enterprises exist to improve the lives of the poor, but if your business requires an endless supply of poor people, it might be time to rethink your strategy.

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Financial Inclusion

Unleashing Ugandan farmers’ potential through mobile phones

A powerful new mobile platform combining agriculture information and financial services specifically designed for farmers in Uganda is going live, helping them plow even more value from each acre.

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Social Enterprise

New web series examines the social enterprise launch pad

Experts in impact investing are getting together on NextBillion to talk about what impact investment funds can do better to help early-stage startups get off the ground.

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Financial Inclusion

Two ways to get farm loans where they're needed most: the boonies

To get small staple-crop farmers the loans they need, lenders must use new approaches tailored to the 90 percent of smallholders not in farmer organizations.

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Value Chains

Natural disasters cost corporations $400 billion in 2011, UN says

Environmental disasters not only cripple smallholder farmers, they also mean high costs for the corporations at the buying end of the supply chain. A forthcoming UN report will show just how detrimental those costs can be.

Malawian boys are proud of their family's dairy cows. Photo: Jennifer Hyman/Land O'Lakes International Development

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Value Chains

Land O'Lakes finds success with dairy micro co-ops in Malawi

The top US dairy cooperative has brought decades of expertise to Malawi, creating micro co-ops that pool their milk for purchase by one of the country's largest processors.

Koblah Agbeta holds up rice seeds from his farm in Abutia Kpota, Ghana. Quality seeds are critical for a good harvest. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/48639212@N02/4775000120/">Gates Foundation (Flickr)</a>

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Value Chains

GMO wars should take back seat to other farm issues, says DuPoint Pioneer

A corporate seed manufacturer is suggesting that slowing the spread of genetically modified crops would be acceptable, if that's what it takes to keep industrializing Africa's farms.

Carlos Sere, IFAD's chief development strategist. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ilri/6331979668/sizes/m/in/photostream/">ILRI (Flickr)</a>.

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Mobile Technology

Memo from a small-farm expert: Not all farmers are the same

Different small farmers farm for different reasons.

Africa should be able to grow enough staples to feed itself. Why isn't it? <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/worldbank/7826351630/sizes/z/in/photostream/">World Bank (Flickr)</a>

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Value Chains

How broken value chains prevent Africans from feeding Africa

Africa has plenty of rich agricultural land but millions of starving residents. The problem is that too much money is going to the wrong places along the way.