Advancing responsible business practices in agriculture
Smallholder farmers are the backbone of global food production, contributing to around 30-40% of the world’s food supply. Yet, the majority of these approximately 600 million farmers face significant challenges, including the growing impacts of climate change and exposure to harmful practices in the agricultural sector.
To address these challenges, it’s crucial to create tools that promote a common language for assessing responsible agriculture and food practices and therefore empower agribusinesses to adopt responsible, sustainable practices that benefit both farmers and the environment. This is where Cerise+SPTF, in partnership with the IDH Farmfit Fund and other stakeholders, steps in. Through the RAF project, two performance management and assessment tools have been developed to promote responsible practices across the agricultural sector.
1. The Agri CP Tool: Client Protection Standards for the Agricultural Sector
In the past, there have been cases of bad practices in financial or agricultural service delivery that caused harm to smallholder farmers. The Agri CP tool was designed to address this issue, ensuring that smallholder farmers receive fair and transparent services in their commercial relationships. This tool guides businesses in assessing and improving how they manage essential services such as financing, service delivery, and market access. Initiated by the IDH Farmfit Fund and shaped with input from multiple IDH programs, the tool aims to ensure that agribusinesses provide fair, transparent services in their relationships with smallholder farmers.
2. The Responsible Agricultural Investment (RAI) Tool
The RAI Tool provides agribusinesses and investors with a comprehensive framework for evaluating how their operations align with international standards for responsible business practices. Drawing on guidelines such as the IFC Performance Standards, the RAI Tool helps businesses assess their impact on sustainability, inclusivity, and responsible growth in agriculture, guiding them toward investments that support long-term, positive outcomes for both people and the planet.
RAF project
The RAF project is a project towards a Responsible Agriculture and Food Sector. With these tools now developed, the next phase of the project is to put them into action and refine them based on the real needs of the sector. Are you interested in seeing these tools applied in real-world scenarios? Join the conversation and learn more by watching this webinar, on how stakeholders across the agriculture and food sectors can contribute and join the RAF project. https://en.spi-online.org/news/view/raf-project
About Cerise+SPTF
Cerise+SPTF is a joint venture of two leading global organizations dedicated to social and environmental performance management—a way of doing business that puts people and the planet at the center of every decision.
About the IDH Farmfit Fund
The IDH Farmfit Fund is a public-private impact fund for smallholder farmers, many of whom are amongst the poorest people in the world. The Fund can take the highest risk positions in smallholder farmer related transactions, thereby reducing the risk currently born by borrowers and lenders. By doing so, IDH Farmfit Fund aims to catalyse commercial capital to coinvest in this sector. These investments will increase the availability of affordable, long-term financing to smallholder farmers, allowing them to invest in their farms, increase productivity and adopt climate-smart agriculture best practices, leading to improvements in their livelihoods and incomes. The IDH Farmfit Fund is facilitated by IDH, The Sustainable Trade Initiative, and supported by a unique coalition of partners including commercial banks, development banks, government bodies and value chain companies. For more information, visit IDH Farmfit Fund