Private Sector Incentives and Investments (PSii) for Climate change, resilience and environmental sustainability

The goal of transforming global food production systems, while simultaneously reducing impacts on the natural environment and improving welfare remains a complex agenda and characterized by trade-offs. To transition from the “business as usual” situation requires simultaneous transformation at multiple levels, socio-ecological systems, economics, business and politico-institutional. Agroecological food systems are promoted as a paradigm shift to transition current food production practices at multiple levels and ensuring regenerative use of natural resources. While a lot of emphasis has been placed on transforming socio-ecological, landscape and production systems, there is limited attention on the role of the private-public sector in achieving agroecological food systems. Although business and private sector stakeholders are increasingly aligning to principles of agroecological food systems, there are also growing concerns among actors on motivation, incentives, investment and transparency by the private sector.

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The Agroecological transitions for building resilient and inclusive agricultural and food systems (TRANSITIONS): Private sector incentives and investments (PSii) project financed by the European Union aims to contribute to filling the persistent knowledge gaps. The goal of the overall TRANSITIONS program is to better align policy, investment, and technical support to enable climate-informed agroecological transitions by farmers in low- and middle- income countries. This will be achieved through the development and adoption of holistic metrics for food and agricultural systems performance, inclusive digital tools and transparent private sector engagement to foster incentives and leverage investment.

The Private Sector Incentives and Investments (PSii) project contributes to the broader TRANSITIONS program objectives and aims at the development of inclusive incentive structures for private sector and private-public stakeholders, as well as leveraging investments supporting agroecological transitions at multiple levels.

A dynamic private-public ecosystem likely possesses some challenges but also provides new opportunities to accelerate simultaneous agroecological transitions via mobilizing investments, creating incentives, de-risking, and balancing trade-offs to contribute to more economically efficient, socially equitable, and environmentally friendly food systems.

• Improving private and private-public sector incentive models to support agroecological transitions for farmers and consumers. 
• Increasing transparency and traceability in supply chains on agroecological metrics and principles. 
• Enhancing the capacity of local institutions for engaging in private-public finance models, assessments and policies that support agroecological transitions.

• What are key structural elements of private and private-public sector incentive models for enabling agroecological transitions?  
• How can new traceability and transparency tools support farmers and consumers in agroecological transitions?  
• What are enabling factors in public policies that enable farmers to benefit better from private sector incentive models for agroecological transitions? 

The project has three main components aiming at assessing incentive structures and metrics, integrating metrics into transparency tools and building capacity of local institutions and co-mobilizing investments. The following figure outlines the specific objectives, key partners, activities and guiding research questions.

This TRANSITIONS PSii project specifically focuses on innovating pathways for long-term incentives and transparent private sector engagement, with targeted outcome that private and public sector actors co-develop and take up innovations in incentive structures, business models, investments and capacity building for agroecological (see next picture). 

To achieve project goals, the PSii is divided into four interconnected phases as illustrated in the figure below.

The PSii Project will focus on two project sites and one learning site for three commodity supply chains: 

• Sustainable rice production in the Mekong River Delta, Vietnam  
• Sustainable cacao production in the Amazonas Peru  
• Sustainable wheat production in Oromia Ethiopia (as a learning case i.e. mainly involved in components 1 and 3)

For more information, please contact:

Jonathan Mockshell - P.I and Project Leader 

Silvia Araujo de Lima - Project Coordinator, Alliance of Bioversity International & CIAT

Learn more about the TRANSITIONS Program: Project on Metrics and project on Digital Tools

• PSii-Ethiopia_Co-developed visions and pathways synthesis: building blocks for a component of incentives in the agroecological policy framework and for supporting agroecological business models in Doyogena
• PSii_ Guia Backcasting- Transicion agroecologica
• PSii_ Hoja de Trabajo Backcasting- agroecologia
• Harnessing agroecology, agrobiodiversity and family farming to transform food systems and halt biodiversity loss: The role of incentives and investment.
• Training about bokashi composting method (video in Spanish)
• Training about bokashi composting method (video with English subtitles)
• REPORTE DE INCENTIVOS E INVERSIONES DEL SECTOR PRIVADO PARA UNA TRANSICIÓN AGROECOLÓGICA EN LA REGIÓN UCAYALI
• Manual práctico para la elaboración de Bocashi
• Reconciling conservation and development requires enhanced integration and broader aims: A cross-continental assessment of landscape approaches
• Thesis Article - Cesar Diaz
• Thesis Article - Cristina Soto
• Thesis Article -  Yuly Matos
• Portfolio of companies for Agroecological Transitions in Peru
• Agroecology Info Pool 
• Alliance Research on Improving food systems through agroecology 
• Transformative Partnership Platform on Agroecology (TPP) 
• OneCGIAR Initiative: Transformational Agroecology Across Food, Land and Water Systems
• Alliance Multifunctional Landscapes 

 2022 - 2025

International Water Management Institute 

University of Vermont & Gund Institute for Environment 

CIFOR-ICRAF

• Pathways to agrifood system transformation: From Local Innovation to Policy Change (PSii chapter page 55)
• Advancing Ethiopia’s agricultural transformation: A consultative workshop on developing the National agroecology strategy
• Commentary by Jonathan Mockshell "Help farmers adopt agroecology to protect biodiversity and climate"
• Capacity-building for sustainable agricultural production in Ethiopia
• From Knowledge to Flavor: the Road to Agroecology
• Agroecology Transition: Incentivizing Crop Diversity for Better Soil Health
• How to integrate Agroecological Principles into Peru's Cocoa Business Model for Sustainable and Resilient Agriculture
• Op-Ed: How the EU can prevent its deforestation-free law from being a half measure
• Peruvian producers are banking on cacao with the aroma of sustainability
• Enabling agroecological transitions in Ethiopia: The role of incentives, business models and partnership. A blog post of the PSii kick-off workshop
• Transforming Ethiopian Food Systems: Leveraging Private Sector Incentives to Drive Agroecological Wheat Production
• Collaborative Learning and Joint Creation Workshop on Agroecological Transitions in Ethiopia