Des outils de données intelligents ouvrent la voie à la réduction des écarts de revenu vital

The agricultural sector relies quite significantly on smallholder farmers, who produce about a third of the world's food. Despite their importance, these farmers are the most vulnerable in the value chain. They face challenges such as  limited access to resources, market information, technology, capital, alongside external threats like climate shocks, market price fluctuations, and persistent poverty. If farmers remain unsupported, it not only deepens the poverty cycle but also threatens global food systems. This  leads to increased hunger and food insecurity, further exacerbating socioeconomic inequalities among already vulnerable communities.  

Les entreprises qui s’approvisionnent auprès de ces agriculteurs ont un rôle essentiel à jouer pour assurer leur durabilité. Mais comment peuvent-elles être plus efficaces dans leurs efforts ?

The reality is that many companies are still lagging behind when it comes  to closing living income gaps with their supply chains. According to the 2023 Food and Agriculture Benchmark report, only 4% of over 2,000 global companies sourcing from around 75 million farmers are taking meaningful steps to close the living income gaps. The foundational barrier to progress is a lack of data-driven insights needed to develop tailored interventions that address the specific needs of various farmer segments. Without such insights, companies struggle to implement strategies in procurement and pricing practices that could significantly impact the lives of smallholders. To address these challenges, companies need innovative tools that provide actionable data insights.

Comment l’exploitation des données améliore les revenus des petits exploitants

For companies to be effective in their efforts, integrating data tools is key. The IDH Living Income tools developed in collaboration with Akvo Foundation, provide companies with reliable and actionable insights to bridge the gap between farmers’ current income levels and living income benchmarks. These tools are designed to help companies visualise current income levels, assess gaps, and build tailored strategies that are both impactful and efficient. 

The tools allow companies to: 

• Gain access to comparable data points and industry benchmarks
• Develop tailored interventions based on real-time, data-driven insights

Les entreprises qui intègrent ces outils dans leurs chaînes d’approvisionnement et leurs processus de conception de programmes peuvent obtenir un avantage concurrentiel.

For instance, IDH’s six year Farmfit Program shows that companies adopting data-informed approaches when engaging smallholders reported significant income gains among farmers. On average, the 17 companies in the Farmfit portfolio saw a 24% increase in service revenues and a 51% median increase in farmer productivity, with over 60% of farmers reporting income growth. This demonstrates that integrating data tools not only improves smallholder livelihoods but also leads to more effective, profitable, and sustainable business outcomes. 

Living Income Roadmap and Tools

Une façon pratique pour les entreprises de commencer à combler l'écart de revenu vital est d'utiliser la feuille de route du revenu vital de l'IDH . Elle aide les entreprises à prendre des mesures ambitieuses et coordonnées pour combler l'écart de revenu vital des ménages agricoles.

Pour renforcer cet effort, l’IDH a travaillé avec la Fondation Akvo pour mettre à niveau la boîte à outils du revenu vital avec deux outils d’aide à la décision basés sur les données, le calculateur des facteurs de revenu et l’outil d’orientation sur la mesure du revenu. Au cœur de ces outils se trouve le cadre des facteurs de revenu, qui mesure le revenu des ménages en fonction de cinq facteurs de revenu clés.

À propos des outils de revenu vital :

• Income Driver Calculator: It is a web-based tool that helps companies use aggregate data to assess the size of the living income gap in their supply chains and make data-driven decisions on the most effective strategies. With an intuitive and easy-to-use interface, users can create scenarios to understand the contribution of different income drivers in closing the living income gap, through data analysis and visualisation. The tool also supports companies in defining and monitoring programme specific income targets  for different farmer segments.

• Income Measurement Guidance Tool: The tool offers companies a streamlined approach for assessing actual household income. It improves resource efficiency in primary data collection by allowing companies to choose between primary and secondary data sources. Based on these choices, users can generate custom primary data collection surveys. Adapted and reviewed from the best of recognised survey methodologies, the IMG standardised data collection methods, ensuring the comparison of data across commodities and regions. It is also available in excel format, including guidance for five commodities (coffee, cotton, tea, spices and bananas) and with plans to include cocoa and palm.

Powered by Akvo

Joining hands with IDH on multiple data and tech initiatives, including the FarmFit Insights Hub, Akvo has been the partner of choice for the ideation and development of the Living Income toolkit. With its strong technical acumen in tool design and development, Akvo has worked closely with IDH to understand stakeholder-specific needs, granularity levels of data, and the overall user experience (UX/UI) requirements for both the IDC and the IMG. This collaboration has resulted in creating a simple and robust user journey on the living income tools, facilitated by extensive knowledge exchanges on data visualisation and strategic requirements from decision makers. 

Par exemple, comme le souligne M. Ashok Krishna, coordinateur principal pour les moyens de subsistance durables à Better Cotton Initiative : « L’outil a grandement facilité nos efforts de modélisation en nous permettant d’ajuster et d’évaluer les effets des différents facteurs de revenu. Il nous a aidés à mieux visualiser divers scénarios, à comprendre l’impact des facteurs de revenu sur le revenu global et à effectuer des analyses de sensibilité. Nous prévoyons de nombreux cas d’utilisation de cet outil à l’avenir. »

About Akvo

Akvo is a non-profit foundation working to bring data-driven decision making and innovative technology to the development sector. Akvo co-creates data and digital solutions to empower governments, organisations, and NGOs to contribute to impact in the agriculture, water, and climate sectors. 

À propos d'IDH

IDH seeks to transform markets and enable businesses to create value for people and planet. IDH brings stakeholders together from across global value chains, to innovate and invest in solutions for sustainable and inclusive international trade. In 15 years of operation, IDH has mobilised private sector investment and support for new business models creating better jobs, better incomes, a better environment, and gender equity for all.