SEEDS

The Smallholder Economic Empowerment through Digital Solutions (SEEDS) aims to accelerate and scale-up social and economic development for smallholder households and poor rural people through digital and ICT solutions and interventions. The Project intends to bridge the digital gap that characterizes the majority of smallholder farmers in Southeast Asia, and in turn facilitate their access to services required for the modernization of their farms and agri-enterprises. This will allow smallholder farmers to be integrated into the evolving digital technology landscape, and to achieve higher farm productivity and incomes. SEEDS will build on Grow Asia’s and IFAD’s experience on bringing innovation through multi-stakeholder partnerships to the small-scale farming sector, as well as leveraging on the leadership of the republic of Korea in the field of digital agriculture. In doing that, the Project interventions will target three key sets of players in the digital ecosystem for smallholder agriculture.

1. Developers of digital technologies (both startups and corporates).
2. Smallholders and farmer organizations: building their capacity to use digital technologies.\
3. Policymakers and regulators: assisting them in establishing an enabling environment by identifying and addressing gaps in the regulatory and policy environment, including those that can provide the incentives to the private sector to expand coverage in rural and remote areas beyond the market frontier towards the public value frontier.
   

A holistic landscape approach is necessary to ensure complementarity and synergies between the interventions.[1]

Identifying Information

1. Duration: December 2023 - November 2024 (24 months)
2. Countries: Philippines, Cambodia, Vietnam

Project Components

• Component 1 - Support the development of digital technologies for smallholder agriculture
  

1. Support for In-Country Digital Initiatives
2. Grow Asia Innovation Challenge
3. Human-Centered Design Training Grow Asia
4. Grow Asia Digital Directory

• Component 2 - Building the capacity of smallholders, through smallholder farmer organizations, in using digital technologies

1. Strengthening collaborative innovation platforms for digital transformation mainstreaming
2. Digital transformation of apex and grassroots farmer organizations at national and regional levels

• Component 3 - Strengthening the enabling policy and regulatory environment for smallholder digital

1. Fostering the use of smallholder-centric digital technologies through an enabling policy and regulatory framework

• Component 4 - Knowledge Management on smallholder- centric digital solutions

1. Knowledge Management for Policy Engagement
2. Digital Guides and Reports
3. Digital Learning Series