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GDFE's commitment to inclusive business in agribusiness

The Group of Foundations and Companies (GDFE) launched a new working table to promote projects. This is the Agribusiness Group for Inclusive Businesses, where companies from that sector and civil society organizations joined an initiative that focuses on the integration of small producers into the agro-industrial value chain and the strengthening of regional economies. The slogan is to investigate how the products and services of the participants can contribute in an innovative way to the development and inclusion in our country.

On April 23 at the headquarters of the ArgenINTA Foundation, the GDFE launched a space that aims to provide answers to the social and production problems that affect vast areas of our country. Progressively, the rural environment expels its inhabitants who migrate to large cities in search of better opportunities for their lives. According to a study by the Responde organization -alone of the GDFE in this process- one out of every two people who leave the field for the city end up settling in precarious neighborhoods.

For this reason, which threatens both urban and rural sustainability and has decisive consequences in the lives of thousands of people, as well as in the productive processes of agro-industry, an affinity group was launched with partners of the GDFE and other associated organizations. ad hoc to support this initiative.

With the ArgenINTA Foundation as host, representatives of Responde, CREA, from the foundations of Los Grobo, Cargill, YPF, Andreani and the companies Nidera Semillas, Syngenta, BASF and Establecimientos La Negra also participated. Other foundations and companies in the food sector committed their participation, although they could not be in the launch.

Background

Inclusive business in Agribusiness is an approach little explored in our country, although there are some background that can help us fulfill our mission in favor of strategic ISP and greater federalization in the work of foundations and companies committed to sustainable development.

"Siembra Inclusiva" is the program of Nidera Semillas (which has the support of the Ministry of Agriculture of the province of Córdoba, the secretariat of family agriculture of the Nation and the cooperative of Cruz del Eje) that facilitates the access of small farmers to high performance seeds in the northwest of Cordoba. Today, hundreds of producers away from grain logistics chains are producing corn and identifying virtuous marketing circles, based on this proposal.

In light of this experience, GDFE convened agricultural companies, technical associations of the sector, suppliers of inputs, energy, logistics, food and agricultural services, with the premise of expanding this innovative system in other value chains in the sector.

Next steps

Taking into account the diversity and richness of the participants and their concrete experience in the territory, we are launching an investigation aimed at systematizing the best practices in the field and offering different lines of action for the implementation of joint productive projects (with the public sector, private and civil society).

The final objective is to launch in the medium term various initiatives that bring together both technical knowledge and innovative employment in social terms, products and services of leading companies in the sector, in order to include small producers in value chains of the agroindustry.

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Published by: Grupo de Fundaciones y Empresas (www.gdfe.org.ar)
Automatic translation from spanish.