EDITORIAL

In a world where global warming is accelerating and geopolitical relations are becoming increasingly unstable, companies need to act quickly to maintain control of their own future. It is their responsibility to create shorter loops necessary to better manage the environmental and social performance of strategic assets under management and across their value chain. With agriculture, for example, everyone depends on farming - for food, raw materials, fuel... More than a quarter of the global population directly depends on the most exposed 500 million small scale farms. Yet agricultural industries are faced with a reality and an observation:

• The reality - validated by feedback from various trips and programs carried out with our teams and glocal networks to develop and run our Sutti agricultural programs for small farmers in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Brazil, the Philippines or Côte d'Ivoire for example - the effects of climate disruption are amplifying. Yields are plummeting in the face of rising temperatures (cocoa), harvests are being damaged by erratic rainfall (cotton), new pests are appearing (cashew nuts), water stress is increasing (coconuts), soils and land are being degraded (biomass), pollinator species are being lost (rice), and so on. The situation is alarming.
   
• The observation - in discussion with our customers and stakeholders - old-fashioned coalitions of stakeholders coordinating behind charters and platforms are not delivering the expected impact. Poverty, child labor, biodiversity degradation... Adaptation solutions are available. In Côte d'Ivoire, cocoa farmers who have embraced climate adaptation through agroforestry are managing to maintain their yields. In Sri Lanka, farmers who are able to invest in their rubber plantations are establishing a micro-climate that is beneficial to other crops. In Indonesia, the production of organic fertilizers in low-tech collective facilities reduces production costs while improving soil quality and farm incomes. There's no shortage of examples, but they're not widespread enough. Largely owing to the lack of access to basic service infrastructure (capacity building, digital solutions, access to market, …), lack of access to financing, mobilization of industrial buyers, and lack of alignment of public policies.

In response, Ksapa is reinvigorating the concept of multi-stakeholder coalitions. Ksapa shapes and delivers synergistic short-loop coalitions that can be replicated at scale, bringing together buyers, public sector, NGOs, scientists, digital solutions and investors. This approach is imperative for a just transition. In agriculture, for example, farmers, groups and cooperatives need to be able to modernize and digitalize their activities, and to invest in order to transform, prepare, strengthen and diversify: in short, to make their businesses more sustainable and efficient.

The entire Ksapa team is proud to be launching the IREN-AGRI initiative this month in Côte d'Ivoire, in partnership with Societe Generale Group, awarded best bank for Sustainability 2024, in close collaboration with the Ivorian Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Food Production along with various industrial and civil society organizations, and the support of the French Ministry of Economy and Finance. This initiative aims to provide Ivorian and African cooperatives with technical assistance, low-tech digital solutions and inclusive finance, for the benefit of all players in the value chain, starting with small-scale farmers. All this to co-develop and implement structural, operational and sustainable strengthening plans for the benefit of rural communities, and contribute to reducing the financing gap in rural areas, which in Africa is around 1 to 50 ...

Solutions do exist, but they require synergetic coalitions including diverse and complementary stakeholders to scale up and generate impact. Let's change gears. Let's join forces!

Raphael Hara, Managing Director