The agricultural sector in Laos has changed dramatically over the past decade. A relatively short time ago subsistence-based farming dominated, especially in the uplands, but recently commercial farming has been making in-roads in rural Laos. These developments have not been uniform across the country. Many of the major cash cropping areas are in the lowlands
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We had a great recent post about small farmer participation in formal and informal markets by Rajiv earlier this month. In thinking about how a large portion of small farmers can be integrated in regional and international food systems, the sheer size and scope of global retailers offers significant new opportunities for inclusion. Connecting the
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The director general of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Dr. Carlos Seré, has recently published an insightful in the Guardian titled; Backing smallholder farmers today could avert food crises tomorrow.  Based on the rise of food crises and food riots in the developing world, Dr. Seré makes a strong case for using smallholder farming
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Note: This post is Part 5 of a 6-part series exploring new business models for linking small farmers to global markets being analyzed through an international collaborative effort that can be read about here.  Read an introductory post, see links to parts 1-4 below, or follow our series at Nextbillion.net. Innovation and Development Innovation is the way
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A few weeks ago Mark uncovered this gem (below) moving through the social entrepreneurship world.  It’s a new framework for looking at creating a social impact start-up by Alex Osterwalder, the Business Alchemist.    There’s no lengthy excel charts or text-laden business plan outlines, the entire process is done completely through pictures and visualization.   The result is something brilliantly
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