Strengthening agribusinesses and the livelihoods of low-income smallholder farmers through applied research in behavioural economics and impact measurement frameworks

In October 2018 the UK Department for International Development (DFID), Shell Foundation and Acumen initiated the Strengthening Impact Investment Markets for Agriculture (SIIMA) partnership. As outlined in the SIIMA Business Case October 2018, this partnership aims to transform the agriculture sector and livelihoods of low-income smallholder farmers and 1 million people in Africa. SIIMA will do this by building and scaling-up markets for affordable, mechanised solutions in agriculture, investing in high-impact businesses that can deliver innovative products and services at scale, developing a robust evidence base on technology adaptation by applied research in behavioural economics, and advancing impact measurement frameworks to mobilize additional capital in the sector. With DFID’s support, Acumen will undertake cutting edge, applied research in behavioural economics to examine the constraints and enablers to the uptake and scaling of climate-resilient agriculture to improve investment decisions. This research will inform strategic decision-making for Acumen’s resilient agriculture initiative, as well as the wider DFID portfolio and agricultural impact investment sector at large. Other portions of this grant will be applied to the initiative’s technical assistance facility to fund Lean Data impact measurement projects for its portfolio, and to develop innovative solutions for measuring investment impact on the poor by leveraging frontier, Big Data technologies.