Rethinking Agri-Business Investments Through the Pandemic: Impact panel
CASA EVENT
Rethinking Agri-Business Investments Through the Pandemic: Impact panel
The Commercial Agriculture for Smallholders and Agribusiness programme (CASA) programme is hosting “Rethinking Agri-Business Investments Through the Pandemic”, a series of virtual convenings unpacking the response to COVID-19 for investors and SMEs in emerging markets.
The series of virtual convenings is designed for investors, investment support stakeholders and commentators in the agribusiness space to share thinking and efforts to consolidate, innovate and adapt in light of the global pandemic. The virtual events are not expected to provide definitive answers but instead to provide a platform for structured sharing and reflection, in response to the issues exercising the investor community and agribusiness sector.
The e-conference series is designed to:
- Identify the needs of SMEs if they are to remain investable options
- Showcase tools and approaches to supporting agribusiness during the pandemic developed by various stakeholders and being considered by impact investors in agri-business;
- Identify evidence gaps and information needs for the CASA programme to support investors through and after the pandemic
- Map as far as possible investment opportunities emerging from disruptive innovation
How is the crisis already affecting global food and crop systems? What has been the impact on agribusinesses in developing countries? How is this likely to evolve in the future? Drawing on the lessons from the CASA programme’s value chain and technical assistance activities, experience from others on the ground and input from academics, this panel discussion will identify the practical impacts of the crisis. It will also feature case studies of different agri- business categories. The impacts discussed will include the effects on livelihoods linked to broken supply chains, the impact of lockdown and illness on harvesting and food prices, and the potential impacts on supply of staple food crops.
SPEAKERS
Judith Batchelar
Judith is responsible for all aspects of Sainsbury’s product offer, from Policy through to the finished product offer, in addition to Corporate Responsibility, Sustainability and Public Affairs; she is a Biochemist and Registered Scientist. In addition to her work at Sainsbury’s, Judith is a Non-Executive Director of both the Environment Agency and the Rugby Players Association, is Deputy Chair of the Farm Africa Broad, a Trustee of the Matt Hampson Foundation and also sits on the Governments Food and Drink Sector Council.
Dr Shenggen Fan
Shenggen Fan is currently chair professor at China Agricultural University, working on global and Chinese food economics and policy. He is the former director general of International Food Policy Research Institute. He has more than 30 years of research and leadership experience in international agricultural development, poverty reduction and food security and nutrition.
Bettina Prato
Bettina Prato is Senior Coordinator of the Smallholder and Agri-SME Finance and Investment Network (SAFIN), housed at the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). She has twenty years of experience in international development, with particular focus on global development governance, development finance, food security and rural development. She holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of California at Berkeley.
Hans Muzoora
Hans Muzoora is an experienced Market Systems development professional with more than 25 years working extensively on market systems programming, including public-private partnerships (PPPs), adaptive programming and leveraging private sector investment across several countries in Africa. He holds a MA in Sustainable International Development from Brandeis University and currently works as the Country Manager for the 5 year DFID funded Commercial Agriculture for Smallholders and Agribusinesses (CASA) programme in Uganda.
Aviva Kutnick
Aviva Kutnick is a Foreign Service Officer currently serving as the Division Chief for Markets and Finance in USAID’s Bureau for Resilience and Food Security. The division supports USAID field Missions on programming to facilitate agriculture finance, investment promotion, agriculture technology commercialization, and market systems approaches to agriculture led growth and food security. Aviva also represents USAID as the steering committee chairperson on AgResults, a pay for results private sector multi-donor $150M initiative. She was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Uzbekistan and has a masters in Economics and International Relations from SAIS and an undergrad degree from the University of Maryland.
Julian Peach
Julian Peach is a partnerships, strategy and agricultural market systems expert with almost thirty years of management and technical experience working to help businesses to grow together with smallholder supply and distribution chains. He has experience with most agricultural input and output and service markets. He has particular skills in facilitating and brokering the way for businesses to achieve transformative, sustainable success at scale. His single motivation is to help rural people to improve their lives.
Stream
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DOWNLOADS
Here you can see the list of downloads for the event (click to download)