How business can engage smallholder farmers in Southeast Asia
Develop smallholder farmers for economic growth, resilient supply and environmental protection
23rd - 24th June 2016, Jakarta, Indonesia
The purpose of the conference is to dicuss and debate what strategies can be implemented by companies to build large-scale resilience, sustainability of livelihoods and land protection for Southeast Asian smallholders. This is NOT a development conference with PPT presentations or speeches – it is a confidental discussion and debate forum on how to get things done through sharing best practices, challenges and solutions.
The conference will address the following topics:
- Boost the resilience of supply through climate-smart farming, prudent infrastructure development and intelligent technical assistance for farmers.
- Integrate zero deforestation efforts and the prevention of forest burning with smallholder engagement programmes.
- Provide sustainability and traceability of commodities without excluding farmers from accessing the market.
- Make Southeast Asian agriculture more attractive for global capital and investment.
- Outline the latest financial innovations and opportunities that can be applied to the smallholders to initiate change.
- Effectively engage companies with smallholder legality issues in order to simplify business, secure livelihoods and protect forests.
Speakers include
Bruce Blakeman
vice president, corporate affairs
Cargill
Bastien Sachet
chief executive officer
TFT
Agus Purnomo
managing director, sustainability and strategic stakeholder engagement
Golden Agri Resources
Mansuetus Darto
national coordinator
Oil Palm Smallholders Union (SPKS)
Fitrian Ardiansyah
Indonesia country director
IDH-The Sustainable Trade Initiative
Petra Meekers
director, CSR and sustainable development
Musim Mas
Kavita Prakash-Mani
executive director
Grow Asia
Matthew Shakhovskoy
director
Initiative for Smallholder Finance
Background
This meeting builds on the work of several Innovation Forum conferences covering sectors including palm oil, sugar and cotton, all of which have smallholder farmers as a critical factor for sustainability. Innovation Forum has a track record of bringing together big business, influential NGOs, relevant governments and other key actors to discuss progressive issues. Relevant to the present forum on smallholders in South East Asia, we ran the ‘How business can tackle deforestation’ conference in Singapore in September 2015, and successfully hosted the ‘How to build resilience and supply security with smallholder farmers’ conference in London, 22-23 March 2016.
Event audience and size
This conference is designed for the following organisations:
- Smallholder farmers’ associations, cooperatives and unions
- Food and beverage companies, agribusiness, soft commodity traders and retailers
- Civil society organisations, certifiers and charities
- Foundations, financial service providers and insurers
- Government, aid agencies and inter-governmental organisations
There will be 100-200 senior professionals attending.
The principal countries that will be focused on are Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, South and Central East China, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos and Malaysia.
Chatham House rule
Given the nature of the topics under discussion, and to promote open, candid dialogue, this conference will be held under the Chatham House rule of non-disclosure.
Venue
This conference is being held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel. The address of the venue is:
Kav. 28-, Jl. M.H.
Thamrin No.30, Central Jakarta City,
Special Capital Region of Jakarta 10350,
Indonesia
Event manager
Boris Petrovic
Project Director, Innovation Forum
Office: +44 (0)20 3780 7430
Direct: +44 (0)20 3780 7434
Email: boris.petrovic@innovation-forum.co.uk
