MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Syngenta PartnerGrow Academy Trains Retailers to Train Farmers in Indonesia

The local unit of Switzerland-based agriculture firm Syngenta International and the World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) recently announced they will scale up a pilot project through which they train sellers of agricultural inputs in Indonesia to give technical assistance to farmers. The program, known as the Syngenta PartnerGrow Academy, trains agricultural retailers on financial management, sales, customer service, and problem solving as well skills for advising their customers. Ernest E. Bethe III, Principal Operations Officer of IFC, described a key component as helping retailers dispense “advice by using a consultative selling approach.”

PT Syngenta Indonesia and IFC plan to expand PartnerGrow across Indonesia, now that they have reached 21,000 farmers in the province of East Java during a pilot phase. In a survey of some of those farmers, 63 percent reported “that they have embraced new farming practices as a result of the improved retailer services.”

The government of Canada provided PartnerGrow with an unspecified level of support.

Syngenta International is an agriculture firm with 28,000 staff members in 90 countries. It describes its work as “applying world-class science to develop crop protection products and seeds…[to] help farmers to overcome multiple challenges – from weeds, insects and disease, to the effects of heat and cold on crops.”

IFC offers loans, equity investments, advisory services and technical assistance to private companies with the intent of alleviating poverty and promoting open and competitive markets in developing countries. IFC has 184 member countries, and it reports total assets of USD 93 billion as of June 2017. During the year ending that month, it disbursed a total of USD 10 billion and earned return on assets of 1.6 percent and return on equity of of 5.9 percent.

The World Bank Group is a multilateral organization whose goal is “to end extreme poverty and promote shared prosperity in a sustainable way.” As of 2018, it has 189 member nations. The group encompasses (1) the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Development Association, which make up the World Bank; (2) IFC; (3) the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency; and (4) the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes. During 2017, the World Bank Group disbursed a total of USD 44 billion.

Sources and Additional Resources

IFC press release
https://ifcextapps.ifc.org/IFCExt/Pressroom/IFCPressRoom.nsf/0/30ED4EC0A306BFC7852582EB00269DC5

IFC budget for fiscal year 2018
http://www.ifc.org/wps/wcm/connect/cbd63894-c62a-453c-bfc8-92b8f8a3155f/IFC+FY18+Q1+MDA+and+FS_FINAL.pdf?MOD=AJPERES

World Bank Group
http://worldbankgroup.org/

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