Beverage company AB InBev and its Uganda subsidiary Nile Breweries has explored ways to increase the resilience of their small-scale grain farmers to the effects of climate change. Their process has been documented by the Sustainable Food Lab in the case study Improving Grain Sector Climate-Smart Awareness and Decision-Making.

Seeking to improve their supply chains of sorghum and barley through local sourcing and sustainability commitments, Nile Breweries Limited leveraged the Guide to Assessing Climate Resilience in Smallholder Supply Chains to further understand their climate risks and the possible interventions available to build resilience to climate change. Working with on-the-ground partner TechnoServe, in collaboration with IITA and the National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO), and by harnessing CIAT’s climate suitability maps, the pilot provided AB InBev with tools that showed financial implications of inaction and illustrated steps to take action against climate change.

As a pilot project of the USAID Supply Chain Resilience Learning Community, the case study also highlights the challenge that private sector actors like AB InBev face when justifying the allocation of internal resources to combat climate change and the overall complexity of working with smallholder farmers. By creating lessons that were useful but simple, the Food Lab and TechnoServe were able to create a better understanding of the need for climate investments. According to AB InBev Agro Manager, Theunis Coetzee, the value of the pilot was “mostly to confirm perceptions – having it quantified and written enables [me] to make the case for resources because it is better for swaying decision-makers.” From this project, Nile Breweries Limited has proposed a number of projects to improve farmer resilience and continue to provide value throughout their supply chain. To learn more about AB inBev and their sustainability efforts, visit their website. To explore TechnoServe’s projects worldwide visit technoserve.org.