BLF-Alliance (IFC-603037)

Countries
  • India
Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.
Financial Institutions
  • International Finance Corporation (IFC)
International, regional and national development finance institutions. Many of these banks have a public interest mission, such as poverty reduction.
Project Status
Active
Stage of the project cycle. Stages vary by development bank and can include: pending, approval, implementation, and closed or completed.
Bank Risk Rating
U
Environmental and social categorization assessed by the development bank as a measure of the planned project’s environmental and social impacts. A higher risk rating may require more due diligence to limit or avoid harm to people and the environment. For example, "A" or "B" are risk categories where "A" represents the highest amount of risk. Results will include projects that specifically recorded a rating, all other projects are marked ‘U’ for "Undisclosed."
Voting Date
Jun 20, 2018
Date when project documentation and funding is reviewed by the Board for consideration and approval. Some development banks will state a "board date" or "decision date." When funding approval is obtained, the legal documents are accepted and signed, the implementation phase begins.
Sectors
  • Agriculture and Forestry
The service or industry focus of the investment. A project can have several sectors.
Investment Type(s)
Advisory Services
The categories of the bank investment: loan, grant, guarantee, technical assistance, advisory services, equity and fund.
Project Cost (USD)
$ 0.60 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Primary Source

Original disclosure @ IFC website

Updated in EWS Mar 11, 2019

Disclosed by Bank Feb 7, 2019

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Project Description
If provided by the financial institution, the Early Warning System Team writes a short summary describing the purported development objective of the project and project components. Review the complete project documentation for a detailed description.

At the time of writing, the IFC webpage does not provide a project description and states: "Project description pending."

However, previously the IFC website published the following project description, which has since been removed.  Please refer to the IFC webpage for updated information about the project.

IFC, Bayer India and other BLF partners have agreed to collaborate to support smallholders in India, in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand, to unlock their farming potential and improve their livelihood. Key focus of the India smallholder collaboration shall be on the following:

A. SUPPORT 10,000 SMALLHOLDER (INCLUDING UPTO 5,000 WOMEN FARMERS) FOR FARM PRODUCTIVITY IMPROVEMENTS:

IFC will work with BLFA partners to build capacity of their extension teams for supporting smallholders in adopting recommended package of agronomy practices and technologies for improvements in farm yields. Through this project, capacity building of 10,000 smallholders (including up to 5,000 women) will be carried out by project-trained extension workers of Bayer India in two low income states in India - Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand. Post one year from completion of project implementation (2 years), average farm yield of smallholders supported under BLFA shall increase by 20% (compared to baseline yield levels). This yield improvement will be measured for a representative sample of smallholders supported under the BLFA in India.

This will include the following key activities:
(i) Review and validate climate-smart agronomy practices of practices for chili and tomato farming
(ii) Provide adult education training of trainers and train Bayer India's project staff on IFC's Farming as Business program
(iii) Provide periodic oversight and feedback on training roll-out, farmer outreach, especially for women farmers, and efficacy

B. DEVELOP 40-50 RURAL-ENTREPRENEURS (INCLUDING UPTO 20 WOMEN) TO SUPPORT BAYER INDIA AND OTHER BLFA PARTNERS IN FARMER ENGAGEMENT, INPUT SALES, AND PRODUCT AGGREGATION:

IFC will work with BLFA partners to identify and train select 40-50 entrepreneurs to play the role of distributors BLFA partners in the project areas in Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand. These entrepreneurs will complement the BLFA partners' extension teams in farmer engagement and extension support, stocking and sale of agri-inputs for BLFA partners, and also serve, if required, as aggregators for farm produce in villages (to further sell to other off-takers in the BLFA). 40-50 agri-entrepreneurs (including up to 20 women) will be trained to support BLFA extension activities with smallholders in Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand by the end of the project.

IFC and BLFA partners may extend this collaboration to other Indian states after experience gained in Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand, with mutual consultation and approval.

Investment Description
Here you can find a list of individual development financial institutions that finance the project.

Contact Information
This section aims to support the local communities and local CSO to get to know which stakeholders are involved in a project with their roles and responsibilities. If available, there may be a complaint office for the respective bank which operates independently to receive and determine violations in policy and practice. Independent Accountability Mechanisms receive and respond to complaints. Most Independent Accountability Mechanisms offer two functions for addressing complaints: dispute resolution and compliance review.

No project-specific contact information available at time of writing.

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF IFC

The Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO) is the independent complaint mechanism and fact-finding body for people who believe they are likely to be, or have been, adversely affected by an IFC or MIGA- financed project. If you submit a complaint to the CAO, they may assist you in resolving a dispute with the company and/or investigate to assess whether the IFC is following its own policies and procedures for preventing harm to people or the environment. If you want to submit a complaint electronically, you can email the CAO at CAO@worldbankgroup.org. You can learn more about the CAO and how to file a complaint at http://www.cao-ombudsman.org/

How it works

How it works