How Small Businesses Can Support Climate-Resilient Value Chains: Lessons from Uganda

The document examines the role of micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in enhancing climate resilience within agricultural value chains, using a case study of Equator Seeds in northern Uganda. It argues that small businesses can reduce climate vulnerability for suppliers and clients by providing climate-resilient seed varieties, complementary training services, and flexible financial arrangements. The analysis identifies key investment priorities for seed companies, including improving informed decision-making for farmers, raising awareness of improved seed varieties, and strengthening quality control systems to combat counterfeit seeds. It concludes with recommendations for practitioners and researchers to improve the enabling environment, enhance MSME capacity to use climate information, and facilitate access to climate finance.

• Small agricultural businesses can support climate risk management (CRM) by developing products and services that reduce climate impacts on their partners, such as domestic seed companies investing in quality seeds.
• In Uganda, climate hazards—particularly droughts—negatively affect all actors in the rice value chain, with smallholder farmers being the most vulnerable due to limited resources.
• The use of quality seeds, especially newly released varieties with climate-resilient attributes like heat tolerance and shorter maturation times, reduces farmers' sensitivity to climate hazards.
• The timeliness and flexibility of product delivery, including the use of seed stocks to buffer fluctuations and flexible loan reimbursement, are critical for helping farmers manage climate risks and recover from harvest losses.
• Many Ugandan farmers prefer home-saved traditional seeds over improved varieties because they are cheaper in the short term and due to a lack of information, despite these seeds being more sensitive to pests, diseases, and climate hazards.
• To effectively support CRM, small seed businesses should prioritize three interlinked investment areas: supporting informed seed choices based on trade-offs, raising awareness of climate-resilient products, and strengthening production and quality control systems to prevent counterfeit seeds.
• A significant barrier to CRM investment for MSMEs is the lack of affordable finance and limited understanding of the seed sector by commercial banks, which can lead to delays in seed multiplication and supply.

APA

Dekens, J., & Dazé, A. (2016). How Small Businesses Can Support Climate-Resilient Value Chains: Lessons from Uganda. International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/how-small-agricultural-business-support-crv-chains-equator-seeds-uganda.pdf

Chicago

Dekens, Julie, and Angie Dazé. How Small Businesses Can Support Climate-Resilient Value Chains: Lessons from Uganda. International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2016. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/how-small-agricultural-business-support-crv-chains-equator-seeds-uganda.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Dekens |first1=Julie |last2=Dazé |first2=Angie |title=How Small Businesses Can Support Climate-Resilient Value Chains: Lessons from Uganda |publisher=International Institute for Sustainable Development |date=October 2016 |url=https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/how-small-agricultural-business-support-crv-chains-equator-seeds-uganda.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{dekens2016how, author = {Dekens, Julie and Dazé, Angie}, title = {{How Small Businesses Can Support Climate-Resilient Value Chains: Lessons from Uganda}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2016}, month = oct, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/how-small-agricultural-business-support-crv-chains-equator-seeds-uganda.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }