Grow Asia is a multi-stakeholder partnership, covering five countries; Indonesia (PISAGRO), Vietnam (PSAV), Philippines (PPSA), Myanmar (MAN) and Cambodia (CPSA), plus a centralised Secretariat which operates out of Singapore.
Grow Asia was spun out of a meeting at the World Economic Forum's Davos event in 2009 between a group of Ministers of Agriculture plus 17 CEOs of major food and agriculture companies. The central idea being that in the light of the then World Food crisis a New Vision of Agriculture was needed.
The approach in Asia has been to form multi-stakeholder country partnerships (MSP) with the basic principles being: locally led, market driven, developing inclusive business models, and always with the small holder farmer as central to the operation. The first two were formed in Indonesia (Partnership for Indonesia Sustainable Agriculture – PISAGRO) and Vietnam (Partnership for Sustainable Agriculture for Vietnams). In mid-2015 the Grow Asia Secretariat, housed in Singapore and funded by Canada and Australia, was formed. In the last 2 ½ years this has formed country MSPs’ i.e. Myanmar Agricultural network (MAN), the Philippines Patenrship for Sustainable Agriculture (PPSA) and the Cambodia Partnership for Sustainable Agriculture. (CPSA). The stretch target is to reach 10 million small holder farmers, and to raise their profitability and profitability by 20%, and/or to reduce their environmental foot-print by 20%.
In total the Grow Asia network has over 300 partners, divided between local and international agribusinesses (50%), 30% are NGOs and farmer organisations, and 20% representatives from Government. The Governance at a Regional level comes from a Civil Society Council, and Business Council plus a Steering Committee which includes representatives from the two councils, a farmer representative, an official from the ASEAN secretariat, as well as the two major donors. The Governance arrangements at the individual country MSPs differ, but in the main have two co-chairs, most typically from the Government and Private sector, plus a core committee of stakeholders.
The stakeholder/partners typical join individual working groups. Currently there are some 46, who in the main take a value chain approach. They collectively identify the choke points in the value cahins, agree and design an intervention and with their own resources implement their project. Currently there are some 46 value chains projects, about 40% are under design, another 40% are being piloted and about 20% are being implanted at scale. Of which about half have independently recorded results. In aggregate these have resulted in some 100,000 farmers adopting improved practices and becoming embedded into modern supply chains. The aggregate incremental increase in farmers’ income is estimated at $ 42 million per year. Two projects have succeeded in lowering the greenhouse gas emissions per unit of production by between a half and one thirds. Emerging from this project are solid, experience-based lesson or what is working.
The country MSPs are also finding a role as an important interlocutor with their national Governments on agricultural policy development. Initially this focused on Governments requesting the networks MSPs’ to help improve the implementation of their policies, but as trust and creditable is being built up, they are increasingly being asked to contribute to the dialogue on policy development. Excellent examples have bene observed in Vietnam – i.e. uptake of the Good Agricultural practices in coffee develop by a PSAV coffee project being disseminated by Government extension officer, Indonesia – PISAgro was asked to help refine the design of the Government’s microcredit scheme to better suit the cash flow characteristics of different agricultural enterprises. This is leading to a PPP whereby funds from the Government plus a Regional Development Bank are being used to create a significant replant bond to enable small scale independent oil palm growers to replant, lifting yield from about 2 ½ to 3 MT/ha to 5 to 6 MT/ha. In Philippines PPSA/Grow Asia have helped convene a group of Financial Insustions to facilitate better use of the mandated 25% of loaning that needs to go to the agricultural sector.
The focus is now on achieving scale. In recognition that the direct impact of individual value chain projects will not in themselves reach 10 million farmers, the Grow Asia secretariat has agreed a program with its Governance councils to reach greater scale. This is built on four pillars. Digital technologies, as offering the prospects of positively transforming the relationship between agribusiness and smaller holder producers. Agricultural Finanace, an enduring constraint to building scale into individual value chain, Policy level, both at the national and regional level - where Grow Asia is working with the ASEAN Secretariat to create a public consultation to create ASEAN guidelines for Responsible Agricultural investments (NB is being based on CFS PRAI), and on the amplifying and accelerating the uptake of the important learning being generated by the Grow Asia network.
A new twin track strategy has been developed and unanimously approved by the three Governance councils to help our network evolve for the future, as the Grow Asia program goes beyond the launch phase and all five country Secretariats move into the functional phase of their development. Both tracks build on the unique added value that the regional Secretariat can bring.
TRACK ONE: Creating resilient and sustainable multi-stakeholder partnerships to deliver economic and environmental benefits to smallholder farmers. We will guide the country Secretariats to become more professional and self-financing, able to engage their governments, deliver effective working groups and manage communications and their own results reporting.
TRACK TWO: Enable the Grow Asia network to deliver results at significantly greater scale. This will focus on innovative approaches and cross regional learnings. Included in this agenda is our digital program, new approaches to agricultural finance and insurance, closer policy dialogue and government engagement, improved cross-regional knowledge exchange and promoting a stronger role for women in agriculture.
Grahame Dixie, Executive Director
Grow Asia
Singapore February 2018
Grahame Dixie