With global food demand set to double by 2050, every link in the agribusiness supply chain is essential.
Last mile retailers—such as agro-input dealers and other local SMEs— serve as the final point of sale for essential goods, delivering products the “last mile” to smallholder farmers and other customers. In an agricultural setting, such shops selling seeds, fertilizers, and crop protection products are especially critical. Last mile retailers are a vital link in the supply chain, particularly in rural communities, where they not only provide key inputs but tend to be a farmer’s first stop to ask for information and advice about products and cultivation practices.
However, a lot of the time, small shops don’t have the training or know-how to best advise their smallholder clients. Often, due to inadequate infrastructure and other factors, last mile retailers are disconnected from the larger, formal distribution chain, limiting growth as well as knowledge sharing.
Building a professional and effective network of Last Mile Retailers who can provide improved inputs and advice is crucial to achieve increased productivity and food security. At the same time, larger companies would benefit from a more resilient and climate smart supply chain. They would also see gains from improved cost efficiencies and expansion of distribution networks into untapped rural markets in emerging economies.
That’s why IFC and its partners created the Last Mile Retailer program. A part of IFC’s Agribusiness Leadership Program, LMR aims to improve the professionalism, knowledge base and business performance of retailers through a customized curriculum tailored to varying class sizes, education levels, and languages.
How it works
1. Assessment
A trained assessor uses the ALP Metrics diagnostic tool to assess operational performance and foundational management practices of the enterprise. IFC can then work with both clients and participants to create a customized training strategy and curriculum based on the results.
2. Training
The managers or owners of the retail shop participate in practical and interactive training tied to the assessment. Participants also create a development plan that addresses performance gaps identified during the assessment.
3. Coaching
Retailers are paired with a trained coach who supports the managers or owners as they complete their development plan and identify opportunities to apply what they learned during training.
4. Improving Performance
Through their development plans, retailers define specific actions meant to improve their performance and help them grow their businesses, secure new contacts, and gain other market benefits.
THE GLOBAL AGRI-ENTREPRENEURSHIP ACADEMY
Entrepreneurship can drive rural economic development by creating jobs, raising living standards, and reducing rural-urban migration, but agri-entrepreneurs (AEs) must have good managerial capacity, financial controls, and access to capital to be successful.
The Global Agri-Entrepreneurship Academy (GAEA), is a joint initiative by Sustainable Agriculture Foundations International Association (SAFIA), the International Finance Corporation (IFC), and Corteva. GAEA promotes rural economic development through AEs who link smallholder farmers to quality inputs, services, and markets to improve productivity, incomes, and climate resilience.
GAEA’s founding members have consolidated learnings, methodologies, processes and tools into a common operating system. This simplifies AE capacity building through access to standardized capacity building material, digital tools, and knowledge resources to strengthen and scale interventions. The GAEA model builds on IFC's Last Mile Retailer curriculum, integrated with training materials and proven approaches from founding partners SAFIA and Corteva.
GAEA offers an asset-light, but knowledge rich model that yields impressive returns by empowering entrepreneurs with the knowledge and skills they need to deliver high-quality inputs and services to farmers. This not only strengthens local businesses but also positions them as trusted, profitable partners for larger enterprises. GAEA has the aim to develop the capacity of half a million AEs to reach 100 million smallholder farmers across Asia and Africa in 10 years.
Find out more at https://globalae.org/
Expert Insight:
Understanding the Last Mile Retailer Difference
BETTER MANAGEMENT, BETTER BANKABILITY
Margaret Anderson, program director at Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture (CNFA), discusses how the new Assessment Tool developed under Last Mile Retailer helps agro-input retailers track financial and inventory management, improving access to credit and bankability.
WHY IFC FOCUSES ON AGRO-INPUT RETAILERS
Alan Johnson, senior IFC operations officer, explains how IFC is working to fill market gaps by focusing on agribusiness retailers, professionalizing farmer organizations, and improving the financial literacy of agribusiness SMEs.
Ary Avila, a project manager at Cadelga Group, one of the largest distributors of agricultural products and services in Honduras, explains how Last Mile Retailer is helping agro-input retailers transform the way they serve and support smallholder farmers.