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Linking Supply Chains, Farmers and Sustainability : A New Rainforest Alliance report analyzes the financing needs for investing in sustainable supply chains
Development agencies, private sector actors and NGOs are working with farmers globally to help them adapt their farming to the needs of the 21st century. But the financial sector argely has been behind the curve. With The Citi Foundation and Rabobank, the Rainforest Alliance launched a finance initiative focused injecting sustainability into supply chain finance.
- Categories
- Agriculture
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A Market for Preservation: Tropical-forest friendly products, entrepreneurship and consumer choice
CleanStar Energy, is social enterprise that focuses on bringing sustainable bioenergy solutions into developing markets while preserving delicate tropical forest communities. It’s the type of business being sought by the Tropical Forest Challenge, which aims to identify the best for-profit solution – an idea, start up, or company with a positive impact on tropical forest biodiversity.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy, Transportation
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Ideas man: professor in quest for India’s rural inventions
t's 43 degrees Celsius, and Prof. Anil Gupta has been hiking the scorched plains of central India for hours. But he smiles widely as he enters a tiny village in search of another unsung genius. "If you have any new ideas or you have any new inventions, I'm here to promote you," he tells farmers squatting beside a dusty roadside shrine to Lord Shiva.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- South Asia
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Bridging the Gap: Unlocking Business Opportunities in Developing Countries
Local farmers or small companies lack the organization, knowledge, capital or incentives to provide these products. These factors are red flags for larger private-sector businesses looking to develop new sources of supply. What’s needed in these sectors is coordination at multiple points along the supply chain to help the market function properly.
- Categories
- Agriculture
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Growing Rwanda Out of Poverty
For the last few years, development wonks and international organizations have had the “Green Revolution for Africa” on their radars. Leaders in Africa have recognized that the first Green Revolution (spurred by the work of agronomist Norman Borlaug) resulted in massive improvements in health and productivity around the world, and are now looking to do the same on the so-called “Dark Continent”.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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NexThought Monday: Angolan Robusta – Getting the Best Coffee in the World to Market
I was 100 percent sure after tasting Angolan coffee that it could overtake Brazil and Colombia, and fill all of our cafes, grocery stores and kitchen counters with its amazing lush aroma and spectacular taste. But, in interviewing cooperatives, manufacturers and buyers, I came across several caveats that hinder the Angolan coffee industry and its farmers, and thus, our access to this marvelous product.
- Categories
- Agriculture
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Water harvesting slakes thirst at an innovative Kenyan inn
When Gaitano Likhavila was still working as an accountant at the provincial hospital in the west Kenyan town of Kakamega, he ran into a situation that got him thinking about water.“There was a serious water shortage that made the hospital administration almost close down the hospital. At the same time, a lot of rainwater from the roofs was wasted, running down to the River Isikhu, but nobody thought of getting hold of this free water,” says Likhavila.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Gender Roles in Green and Inclusive Business – Replicating Old Patterns or Breaking New Ground?
The green economy has the potential to empower women – but risks replicating old gender patterns of the ‘brown’ economy, says a new DCED / GIZ study. How does the case look for social entrepreneurship and impact investing?
- Categories
- Agriculture, Education, Environment, Social Enterprise
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