Measuring Smallholder Impact by Agribusinesses – the case of SABMiller

Many agribusinesses in developing countries have incorporated smallholder farmers into their supply chains, and many market systems programmes aim to assist agribusinesses to do this in a way that benefits poor farmers. It still remains difficult, however, to access data on how this trade impacts these farmers’ livelihoods.

The Smallholder Working Group, co-convened by Grow Africa and AGRA, recently reviewed good practice with regard to how to measure the impact of agribusinesses of smallholders. This included exploring a case study on the impact measurement approach taken by SABMiller[1], a beverage company that relies on smallholder supply chains in developing countries for sourcing its brewing crops.

SABMiller’s approach to measuring the impacts on smallholder farmers was two-fold;

1. Systemised data collection and analysis; SABMiller aimed to develop tailored, central repository of data collected from a variety of supply chains which facilitates two-way communication i.e. collecting data from farmers and facilitating outbound communication of relevant information back to farmers.
2. Deep-dive studies in specific markets; SABMiller complimented this data collection with deep-dive studies in priority markets to understand in greater detail the socio-economic and livelihood impacts at farmer level.

Example of Uganda deep-dive study; One of these deep-dive studies measured the impact of sorghum and barley supply chains on the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in Uganda.

Interviews were carried out with a sample of 805 farmers (including a control group of farmers outside the SAB Miller value chain) as well as other supply chain actors, such as aggregators and agents. A similar study had not been carried out before these supply chains were set up, so it was not possible to compare results against a baseline. However, the researchers spoke to farmers to understand their perceptions of changes since joining the SABMiller supply chain and they interviewed a control group of 200 sorghum farmers who were not supplying SABMiller in order to compare results. Data was collected on a range of metrics, including access to markets, farmer productivity and incomes, net crop income and household income, crop profitability, adopting of farming practices, women’s empowerment, food security, post-harvest losses as well as the business relationships between different supply chain actors.

Further information

• Clink link to access the full briefing paper on “measuring smallholder impact by agribusinesses”
• Join the Smallholder Working Group via the Grow Africa website, or by emailing benita.nsabua@growafrica.com

• This blog is part of a series on what’s new in inclusive agribusiness from April 2017. Hear from more contributors in part one of the series- digging into the details of inclusive business programmes around the world.  In part two contributors share how long-standing perspectives on cooperative, corporate strategies, value chain partnerships, market system change, rural livelihoods support, financing, and innovation adoption are beginning to blend, and why. 

[1] The combination of SABMiller plc with Anheuser Busch InBev (AB InBev) was completed on 10^th October 2016.