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Policy briefInnovative contract farming arrangements in Asia and the Pacific 2022
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No results found.Although informal transactions are still the norm in Asia and the Pacific, contractual agreements are on the rise, especially for high-value agricultural commodities. As contract farming arrangements grow in number and become more sophisticated, a series of innovations are emerging to enhance their inclusion and efficiency. The nature of these innovations can range widely – from the adoption of digital technologies, to new governance mechanisms and novel regulations. Governments in the region face the challenge to further mainstream contract farming while ensuring inclusiveness and fairness. Recent government interventions are targeting areas such as introducing gender sensitive regulations leading to the increased participation of women in economic transactions, facilitating insurance to reduce contract farming risks related to weather-based agriculture or natural disasters, utilizing third-party verification systems to combat power abuse, and promoting sustainable public-private partnerships that enhance inclusion and equity. The discussed policy measures can contribute to facilitating the shift towards more structured market channels that provide farmers the opportunity to integrate into modern and more complex agrifood value chains that serve remunerative markets. Nonetheless, governments should ensure that those interventions are able to create a suitable enabling environment to potentially lead to contractual arrangements that are fair to all value chain actors, including smallholder farmers. -
Book (stand-alone)Scaling up inclusive innovations in agrifood chains in Asia and the Pacific 2022
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No results found.The publication looks at innovations happening at all stages of the food value chain: from production to manufacturing and retailing. This also includes the extended value chain, for example input supply, financial services and agribusiness support services. Yields are improving and primary production is becoming more resilient as a result of digital technologies such as precision agriculture, agricultural drones, and digital farming services and marketplaces; and novel business models such as plant factories, crowdsourcing for farmers. Data and robotics help lift productivity and food safety in the manufacturing process. Online grocery commerce and food delivery services are revolutionizing the way consumers purchase food. Distributed ledger technology, such as blockchain, allows making payments and tracing back food products along the chain in order to increase transparency and trust. New business models are springing up to shorten the chain by removing or shifting stages and to make it fairer and greener, stimulated by enabling technologies and changing customer behaviours. Innovations such as these are discussed and illustrated by almost 200 practical examples from 21 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, across various types of firms and commodities. By observing emerging trends and providing concrete examples, the book discusses the nature of these innovations, how they are affecting food systems and value chains, positively or negatively, and how to deal with trade-offs. It concludes with a reflection on the impacts of these innovations, the policy solutions identified, and lessons learned to future-proof the region’s food systems, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. -
Book (stand-alone)Asia-Pacific roadmap for innovative technologies in the forest sector 2022
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No results found.The preservation of forests, sustainable forest management (SFM), forest landscape restoration (FLR) and the need to make the most of precious forest resources are priority issues in the policy and sustainable development agenda of the Asia-Pacific region. Innovation will be key in the coming decades to meet the increasing demand for wood and other forest products while halting and reversing deforestation, in line with the commitment taken at COP26 in Glasgow by the international community. However, uptake of innovative technologies has been slow and uneven in the Asia-Pacific region, and there remains a gap between political commitments and the investments – in education, capacity building, and infrastructure development – required to put them into practice. This technical report examines the potential and barriers to disseminating and deploying innovative technologies for SFM in the region and provides overarching recommendations and specific options for decision-makers. It delineates and informs the process by which decision-makers and actors can identify: the potential of innovative technologies to advance SFM; their potential impacts; constraints to technology uptake and scaling up, and how to overcome these constraints and facilitate adoption.
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