In this edition of our Perspectives interview series, Dr. Shailendra Mishra, Global Head of Sustainability within Olam Agri’s Food & Feed business, talks about how the flow of valuable resources to farmers and small business owners can scale when large off-takers, governments and philanthropists join hands to put farmers first. The Perspectives interview series highlights emerging issues in agri-SME and smallholder finance from the perspective of practitioners and thought leaders from within and outside the Smallholder and Agri-SME Finance and Investment Network (SAFIN).
Please tell us about Olam Agri’s activities as a value chain player in agriculture. What sets you apart from other multinational corporations in the sector?
Olam Agri is a market-leading, differentiated food and agriculture business with a global origination footprint, processing capabilities, and a deep understanding of market needs built over 34 years. We have a strong presence in high-growth emerging markets, especially in Africa and Asia. Our products span several agriculture supply chains across grains, oilseeds, edible oils, cotton, wood, rubber, and services that include freight and risk management solutions.
We are driven by our focus on transforming food and agriculture for a more sustainable and food-secure future. As we work directly with hundreds of thousands of smallholder farmers across several agriculture supply chains and geographies, we are in a unique position to help make smallholder farming more sustainable and resilient so that those smallholder farmers are able to earn more while reducing the use of inputs and mitigating the impact of agriculture on the environment.
Why is sustainability a priority for Olam Agri? What successes have you had in this space and how has your sustainability work impacted your business, small-scale farmers and agricultural enterprises?
Our guiding light is our purpose of transforming food and agriculture for a more sustainable and food-secure future. Farmers, especially smallholders, face tremendous challenges due to climate change and unpredictable weather patterns. We see first-hand how it impacts their livelihoods. Things are only getting worse. 2023 broke records in the number of heatwaves, droughts, wildfires, and floods, both in intensity and frequency, due to the climate crisis. This year is already trumping that! This has a devastating impact on agri-food systems, and that impact is disproportionately more destructive for smallholder farmers in emerging markets.
Assessing the challenges that smallholder farmers face on the ground and addressing them through collaboration with other stakeholders in the private and public sectors has proven effective at improving their livelihoods and making farming more sustainable. In rice, for example, our work with more than 50,000 smallholder farmers in Southeast Asia in collaboration with partners like the German development agency Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), UN Women, and government agencies have shown reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of up to 25% and increases of up to 30% in farmer income.
Another example, which goes beyond Food & Feed Businesses, is from our cotton supply chain, where Olam Agri has launched the largest certified regenerative agriculture programme globally as we provide smallholder cotton farmers with tools and resources to increase soil fertility, sequester carbon, and maintain biodiversity. Simultaneously, we offer our consumers cotton products that are fully sustainable and traceable back to their origin. A total of more than 250,000 hectares of land, 20,000 farm enterprises, and both of Olam Agri’s ginning facilities that process 100,000 metric tonnes (MT) of seed cotton in Côte d’Ivoire have been regenagri® certified. In the U.S., Olam Agri has received regenagri® certification for 15,000 hectares of farmland and three ginning facilities producing 20,000 MT of cotton.
Value chain finance remains an untapped source of capital for agricultural SMEs. How can more of it be unlocked to foster more sustainable value chains in agriculture?
Value chain financing remains untapped because robust models for collaboration between the public, private, and philanthropic sectors are still nascent. I call these ‘4P models’ or ‘Public, Private, Philanthropic Partnerships,’ where large trading companies like Olam Agri are guaranteed off-takers for farmer cooperatives, governments support the formalization of such cooperatives and philanthropic organizations build the capacity and sustainability of farms. Imagine the positive impact on farmers and small agribusinesses in terms of access to finance, training, and markets if such 4P models were replicated at scale.
What role do partnerships play in Olam Agri’s sustainable value chain efforts? What kind of partners would best fit this work?
Olam Agri aims to collaborate across our industry and beyond to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 and our own targets. For us, partnerships are absolutely essential to advancing positive and sustainable change in the agri-food sector. We are looking for private, public and philanthropic partners who are ready to scale their impact tenfold with a sustainability-minded corporation. We have boots on the ground ready to buy produce — what we need are partners to de-risk such transactions and build capacity among farmers. A place like SAFIN, where diverse organizations with shared interests converge, can play a big part in fostering such partnerships.
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Meet the expert
Dr. Shailendra Mishra is the Global Head of Sustainability within the Food & Feed Business at Olam Agri, covering sustainability in Grains, Oilseeds, Edible oils, Feed, Facilities, and Freight. He is responsible for shaping the sustainability strategy and overseeing the implementation of projects within these businesses. This covers initiatives in climate action, socio-economic impacts, farmer livelihoods, regenerative agriculture, and identifying high-risk sourcing landscapes via traceability and landscape-level ecosystem services.
Shailendra is a seasoned conservation and ecology scientist who has been dedicated to advancing nature-based sustainable solutions that deliver impact on conservation, restoration, regenerative agriculture, green finance, and climate change for nearly two decades. He holds a Ph.D. in Climate and Environmental Sciences from the National University of Singapore.