Global Ideas News Brief: Mapping the next coup

BusinessEmerging Markets Are Crashing: Should We Be Worried?The AtlanticDeveloping countries used to be sources of stability for the global economy. Now they’re its biggest threat.An awakening giantEconomistIf Africa’s economies are to take off, Africans will have to start making a lot more things. They may well do so.The Challenges of Running Responsible Supply ChainsNYTBangladesh is just one link in the global supply chain. As a result of globalization, almost every item bought by consumers in developed countries is produced at least in part by low-wage workers in developing countries. While it’s true that these jobs have lifted many individuals out of grueling poverty, it’s also true that many of them work in conditions that violate acceptable standards in the United States and other …

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Business

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Developing countries used to be sources of stability for the global economy. Now they're its biggest threat.

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The Challenges of Running Responsible Supply Chains

NYT

Bangladesh is just one link in the global supply chain. As a result of globalization, almost every item bought by consumers in developed countries is produced at least in part by low-wage workers in developing countries. While it’s true that these jobs have lifted many individuals out of grueling poverty, it’s also true that many of them work in conditions that violate acceptable standards in the United States and other developed countries.

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Global Ideas News Brief: Mapping the next coup

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Farm business advisors deliver products and profits to Cambodia’s rural farmers

When Cambodian farmers buy fertilizer and seeds, they can also get helpful advice about how to increase production and gain better access to reliable markets to sell their crops.It’s all part of a bundled package that provides farming necessities and technical know-how to smallholder farmers through a business model designed to boost incomes, share knowledge and create value at each step of the supply chain.Lors Thmey, which means ‘new growth’ in Khmer, teaches local entrepreneurs to become farm business advisors. That means that in addition to selling products to farmers, they’re trained to be consultants, too. Their clients, rural farmers, pay them for supplies, like seeds, fertilizers, shade screens and drip piping, and advice and information on everything from weather patterns to soil care …

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When Cambodian farmers buy fertilizer and seeds, they can also get helpful advice about how to increase production and gain better access to reliable markets to sell their crops.

It’s all part of a bundled package that provides farming necessities and technical know-how to smallholder farmers through a business model designed to boost incomes, share knowledge and create value at each step of the supply chain.

Lors Thmey, which means ‘new growth’ in Khmer, teaches local entrepreneurs to become farm business advisors. That means that in addition to selling products to farmers, they’re trained to be consultants, too. Their clients, rural farmers, pay them for supplies, like seeds, fertilizers, shade screens and drip piping, and advice and information on everything from weather patterns to soil care to up-to-date market pricing. As a result, farmers produce better crops and make more money, and the FBAs expand their businesses and boost their incomes, too.

The micro-franchise model of Lors Thmey was started in 2005 by iDE, an international organization with a mission to improve livelihoods for rural households. Recognizing that rural farmers were missing out on opportunities to make more money because they lacked quality inputs, irrigation supplies, credit, agronomic know-how and current market information, iDE saw an opportunity to create a profitable business with tangible benefits for its clients, as well.

“The core offerings of the business should create social value,” said Michael Roberts, the Cambodia country director for iDE.

And, Roberts pointed out, very small improvements can create a lot of value for Cambodia’s farmers. “Because it’s relatively easy to get the gains, that’s a great opportunity for social business,” he said.

That’s what farmer are seeing, too. For less than $50 per year, Lors Thmey’s 14,000 clients earn, on average, $250, a return of five times their initial investment.

“It’s much easier to make enough money now than it was before,” said Siey Mai, who farms rice, beans, tomatoes and melons on a plot of land that has been in her family for generations.

Even as prices for seeds and other supplies increase, Mai and her family have seen their profits grow faster than their costs in the two years that they’ve been working with a local advisor who has a Lors Thmey franchise. “He comes to the farm to teach us little things, like how to use plastic to keep the land soft,” she explained. “With softer land, we grow better food and sell more crops.”

Another benefit of working with the advisors is that farmers can keep working instead of traveling to distant markets to sell their crops.

“Now customers come right to the house to buy our food,” Mai said. “They know what we grow, and they like it, so we know people will come here to buy it.”

That’s because the advisors know what their clients are growing, and help to spread the word in local communities. While some crops still are sold in central markets, farmers like Mai now can trust information they get about current market prices and are more comfortable selling from home. And it’s in the advisors’ interest to advertise their clients’ products well: The more the farmers earn selling crops, the more they invest in additional inputs and advice, meaning better business up the supply chain.

The franchise model generates income at three different points along the supply chain of agricultural production. Small-scale farmers, half of whom are from the poorest third of the Cambodian population, earn higher incomes through use of quality supplies and up-to-date methods. As independent entrepreneurs, advisors earn margins on the sale of products and build their customer base by providing advice that works. And Lors Thmey turns a profit selling products to its franchises, as it continues to build and support the advisor network throughout the country.

Business is growing for Lors Thmey, which currently operates as a separate for-profit business within iDE’s operations in Cambodia. Active in five provinces and expanding into three more, Lors Thmey aims to employ 400 FBAs and be entirely self-financing within two more years.

Lors Thmey capitalizes on using the market to sell knowledge, as well as physical goods. “You can’t donate people out of poverty,” Roberts said.

“The only thing that’s given free in this project is training to the [advisors]. The small farmers need to invest in the seeds, fertilizer and irrigation equipment. But it’s still able to reach very poor households, because the minimum investment is actually very small.”

And, according to farmers, the investment is worth it.

Read more stories from the field with farm business advisors and their clients.

Author Erik Mandell visited Lors Thmey in Cambodia with Portland State's Impact Entrepreneurs program.

Watch this video about iDE’s Farm Business Advisor program in Cambodia, made as part of Nestle’s Creating Shared Value Prize:

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iDE Cambodia

Lors Thmey Project Description

For more info: Farm business advisors deliver products and profits to Cambodia’s rural farmers

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Farm business advisors deliver products and profits to Cambodia’s rural farmers

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Nurturing may protect kids from brain changes linked to poverty

Respite Care Is a Good Option When the Going Gets Tough Caregiving for…On MyBiologica.comHealth is the level of functional or metabolic efficiency of a living being. In humans, it is the general condition of a person’s mind and body, usually meaning to be free from illness, injury or pain.Alternative medicine is any of a wide range of health care practices, products and therapies, using methods of medical diagnosis and treatments which, at least up to the end of the twentieth century, were typically not included in the degree courses of established medical schools teaching medicine. Examples include homeopathy, Ayurveda, chiropractic and acupuncture.On MyBiologica.com all you are looking for about alternative medicine and health.Coming soon section with best cheapset health insurance offers …

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Nurturing may protect kids from brain changes linked to poverty

Researchers have identified changes in the brains of children growing up in poverty. Those changes can lead to lifelong problems like depression, learning difficulties and limitations in the ability to cope with stress. But the study showed that the extent of those changes was influenced strongly by whether parents were attentive and nurturing.

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Oct. 28, 2013 — Growing up in poverty can have long-lasting, negative consequences for a child. But for poor children raised by parents who lack nurturing skills, the effects may be particularly worrisome, according to a new study at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.Among children living in poverty, the researchers identified changes in the brain that can lead to lifelong problems like depression, learning difficulties and limitations in the ability to cope with stress. The study showed that the extent of those changes was influenced strongly by whether parents were nurturing.The good news, according to the researchers, is that a nurturing home life may offset some of the negative changes in brain anatomy among poor children. And the findings suggest that teaching nurturing skills to parents — particularly those living in poverty — may provide a lifetime benefit for their children.The study is published online Oct. 28 and will appear in the November issue of JAMA Pediatrics.Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the researchers found that poor children with parents who were not very nurturing were likely to have less gray and white matter in the brain. Gray matter is closely linked to intelligence, while white matter often is linked to the brain’s ability to transmit signals between various cells and structures.The MRI scans also revealed that two key brain structures were smaller in children who were living in poverty: the amygdala, a key structure in emotional health, and the hippocampus, an area of the brain that is critical to learning and memory.”We’ve known for many years from behavioral studies that exposure to poverty is one of the most powerful predictors of poor developmental outcomes for children,” said principal investigator Joan L. Luby, MD, a Washington University child psychiatrist at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. …

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Nurturing may protect kids from brain changes linked to poverty

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