SABMiller Case Study – Academic paper: Assessing the externalities of SABMiller's barley extension program in Rajasthan

November 2013 – This report examines the externalities associated with the increased production of malting barley for a brewery in Rajasthan, India. The company has been working with independent small scale farmers to increase yields through better crop management and increased adoption of new barley varieties that are more beneficial to the brewing process than the feed barley which has traditionally been grown in Rajasthan.

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The origin of this working paper lies in a case study prepared for the Valuing Nature Network (VNN) “Valuing Externalities in a Business Context” project, run by the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership with funding from the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC).

This report examines the externalities associated with the increased production of malting barley for a brewery in Rajasthan, India. The company has been working with independent small-scale farmers to increase yields through better crop management and increased adoption of new barley varieties that are more beneficial to the brewing process than the feed barley which has traditionally been grown in Rajasthan. The environmental externalities associated with farm operations are described and quantified, using information from farm extension worker focus groups as well as publicly available data. Four crop growing scenarios are developed for a typical 2.8 ha farm.