The Community of Practice (CoP) was successfully launched at a kick-off meeting hosted by ICRISAT in Hyderabad, India, on October 26-28, 2010 and culminated in a Declaration of Cooperation around four key action areas. Between face-to-face meetings, CoP members will have the opportunity to meet each other, discuss important agribusiness topic, share files and shape the Agribusiness CoP work program though this iDisc.net online platform.

Program Background

According to the World Bank, the potential of agricultural growth to reduce poverty is four times greater than the potential of growth from other sectors. The overall focus of infoDev’s Agribusiness Program, in cooperation with the Government of Finland, is to enable innovative agribusiness entrepreneurs in the food industry that 1) provide inputs to primary producers in the form of goods and services and 2) add value to primary products (such as agro-processors) and play a catalytic role in terms of enhancing efficiency, quality and market access across the value chain.

The Program has a special emphasis on enabling access to and productive use of technologies that are available locally, in the region and internationally. Agribusiness entrepreneurs that provide inputs to farmers play a role in facilitating access to technologies that can increase farm productivity. Agro-processors need access to and capacity to utilize value adding technologies. All players, ranging from the input provider to the farmer to the value added producer and marketing enterprises can potentially benefit from effective use of ICT to increase access to information, know-how and markets, and enhance transaction efficiencies.

Membership in the Global Community of Practice involves a readiness to share knowledge, active participation in the work program that the CoP undertakes and a willingness to share good practice and data on agricultural companies incubated. As a result, members will be able to strengthen their support to early-stage innovative agribusiness entrepreneurs through knowledge exchange with peers, as well as early access to a training on agribusiness incubation and SME internationalization. The member business incubator and its successful agribusiness entrepreneurs will also have the opportunity to gain visibility and expand their networks through participation in workshops and conferences, good practice assessments, and publications.

If you are interested in joining the Agribusiness CoP, please e-mail idisc@infodev.org.