1) The document summarizes agri-food value chains in South Asia, focusing on three case studies: Grameen Danone Foods Ltd in Bangladesh, the Supplementary Nutrition Programme in India, and mandatory flour fortification in Pakistan. 2) In Bangladesh, Grameen Danone Foods Ltd is a social enterprise joint venture that produces fortified yogurt. It faces challenges with costs, pricing, availability, and expanding market reach while maintaining commercial viability and supporting dairy farmers and distribution networks. 3) India's Supplementary Nutrition Programme provides fortified food to women and children. Case studies from Telangana and Tamil Nadu show different state-led and public-private partnership models for production and distribution

1. Agri-food Value chains in South
Asia
R V Bhavani, Project Manager
LANSA, MSSRF
7 Feb 2018, IDS

2. Agri-food Value Chains
in South Asia
• Business: Grameen Danone
Foods Ltd in Bangladesh
• Food Distribution:
Supplementary Nutrition
Programme under the ICDS
in India
• Food Fortification:
Mandatory Flour Fortification
in Pakistan
07 February 2018

3. Business-Based Strategies
for Improved Nutrition
The Case of Grameen
Danone Foods
Jessica Agnew & S Henson

4. • Joint venture between Groupe Danone and Grameen
Group established in 2006
• Social enterprise – return on investment measured
according to social objectives
1. Bring about improved health through better nutrition to the
poorest children
2. Reduce poverty and create employment for local people,
particularly through a network of rural ladies.
Grameen Danone Foods
Limited (GDFL)

5. Objectives
1. Explore the challenges faced by GDFL, a
business, in marketing a fortified yogurt while
establishing long-term commercial viability and
scale
2. Is there evidence of the potential for
improvements in nutritional status brought
about by GDFL

6. Key Features of the GDFL Value
Chain
• Unique snack products in the market fortified with 4
essential nutrients (Zn, I, Fe, Vit A – 30% RDA)
• Shokti+: Fresh yogurt in 60 g plastic pot (10BDT)
• Shokti Pocket: Ultra-heat treated yogurt in 40g tubes (6BDT)
• Milk is procured from micro dairy producers and paid an
incentive for quality and loyalty
• Distribution channels
• ‘Last-mile’ distribution channels through a network of local ladies
• Retail shops in rural and urban areas
• High-end market cross-subsidization

7. Commercial Viability of
GDFL
• Successes
• Achieved sales in excess of 100,000 pots per day
• Successful in raising awareness of the product benefits
• Cross-subsidization strategy increases capacity to off-set costs
• Challenges
• Costs and pricing – volatile input prices, support of dairy farmers
and network of ladies
• Consistent availability
• Market expansion – reach and repeat purchase

8. Potential for Nutrition Impact
• Repeat purchases
generally < recommended
3 cups/ week
• Reaching target market vs
support of the ladies
distribution network
• Households consuming
Shokti+ most frequently
have the highest diet
diversity scores
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
0 1 2 3 4 5 or
more
Number of pots

9. Overall Findings
• Finding the right marketing and distribution channels are
essential for commercial viability and nutritional impact
• Cross-subsidization may help to mitigate high costs of
marketing to low-income consumers
• Market-based approaches are best suited to slightly higher
income segments, but given the prevalence of micronutrient
deficiencies, the potential for nutritional impact is not
diminished
• GDFL demonstrates that surmounting the challenges
associated with offering a novel nutritious food product to
the poor is not impossible for a business

10. Food Distribution Value
Chain: Case Study From
India
Bhavani R V & Rohit Parasar

11. Context and Motivation
for the Study
Role of State is central to food safety nets - targeted public
food distribution to improve nutrition in lower economic strata
Target Groups: Women and Children- impact on Nutritional
Outcomes
Supplementary Nutrition Programme (SNP) under ICDS in
India: state prog with scope for private business role
Examine two models: State-led VC in Telangana and PPP
VC in Tamil Nadu

12. ICDS and Supplementary
Nutrition Programme
•ICDS: National level social protection initiative targeting
pregnant and lactating women, adolescent girls and 0-6 years
children
•SNP focuses on improving nutritional intake by 'spot feeding'
and 'take home rations' (THR)
•Programme is implemented by all the state governments. Cost
is shared equally by Central and State Governments. Some
States allocate additional funds.

13. Telangana Model
Telangana Food, a state govt enterprise established in 1974 in
erstwhile Andhra Pradesh; manufactures Balamrutam (fortified pre-
mix) and fortified extruded snacks provided at ICDS Centres.
Earlier it was also manufacturing other micro-nutrient rich ready to
eat food.
There is under utilisation of capacity currently: change in govt.
policy on RTE foods under ICDS; and state bifurcation.

14. Tamil Nadu Model
Two Entities:
• Private manufacturers of
micro-
nutrient rich food blend
• Women’s cooperative who mix
the blend with roasted wheat
flour and pack the product

15. State Commitment
*hypothetical;
State
Cost per head per
day in Rs
Estimated total annual
expenditure (million INR)
Percent of State
GDP
Telangana 21 (£0.24) 3,458.8 (£40) 0.059
Tamil Nadu* 21 (£0.24) 4,226.6 (£48) 0.035
Cost to state of providing hot cooked meal to women
•Both Tamil Nadu and Telangana are allocating more resources than the
Govt. of India recommendation.
•The amount however accounts for only a small proportion of the state
GDP
Find negative association of prevalence of under-nutrition with additional per hea
cost i.e. a State that spends more on the beneficiaries under SNP has lesser num
of undernourished children. Willingness of the State to spend is an important fac
for impact

16. Overall Assessment
•SNP: An important link for translation of agricultural production
into favourable nutritional outcome by providing – sustained
and safe, nutrient-dense and adequate food to women and
children from poor households
• Scope for different models – participation of business
•Important in the context of developing countries with large
undernourished population
•Alternative framework to address the requirements of these
value chains will be useful

17. 07 February 2018
Going Against the Grain of Optimism:
Flour Fortification in Pakistan
Natasha Ansari, Rashid Mehmood
and Haris Gazdar

18. Context overview &
summary of the value
chain
• 23 million metric tonnes
of wheat produced
annually and domestic
output is sufficient
• Government’s role:
• Government procurement
accounts for quarter of total
output
• Government stock is
subsequently sold to private
mills at subsidized prices
• High rates of iron deficiency
among adult women and
children
• The standard meal includes
flat wheat flour bread or ‘roti’
• Wheat flour iron fortification
seen as a promising vehicle
for addressing anemia by
INGOs (MI, GAIN, UNWFP)

19. Summary of the value
chain
Two alternate value chains:
• Small scale, traditional, community-level ‘chakkis’
• And large-scale flour-mills spread across the country
• Dearth of precise data
• Chakki Flour
• Farmers retain over 60% of
the harvest.
• Half of which kept for self-
consumption or seed
• Rest is either used as in-kind
payments or sold to private
sector buyers
Industrial Mill Flour
• Mills acquire grain from:
government stocks at subsidized
prices and also free to buy grain
from the open market
• Produce a range of varieties of
flour from ‘regular’ to ‘fine’
qualities.
•It is the 'regular' flour which is
expected to be fortified under
Mandatory Food Fortification
Regulation

20. Main challenges
• Chakki flour remains
competitive despite the
industrial scale and public
subsidy enjoyed by the
modern value chain
• Project design is on
premise that there are no
constraints to acceptance
of fortified flour that
marketing cannot
overcome
• Our qualitative study on
consumer attitudes
suggests that there are
reasons
• Chakki flour is likely to
remain outside the remit of
a standard fortification
intervention that focuses on
industrial mills
• And it is unclear if the ‘fine’
variety will be brought
under mandatory regulation
given its current regulatory
exemption

21. Results/Evidence of impact
• On present evidence, there
are concerns that
upcoming wheat flour
fortification interventions
will fail to register impact
• The range of factors that
shape consumer behavior
and producer incentives
need to be taken into
account alongside scientific
and technical aspects of
intervention design
• The wheat procurement and
supply system has
inefficiencies
• Government ends up with a
virtual monopoly in the stock of
wheat grain
• Questions about ability of
government to control quantity
of regular flour produced
• Interventions not attentive to
institutional and political
economy constraints along
the value chain are unlikely
to deliver on potential