The Business Case for Women's Economic Empowerment in PepsiCo's Potato Supply Chain in West Bengal: Key Results and Recommendations

USAID partnered with PepsiCo to test the business case for economically empowering women in PepsiCo’s potato supply chain in West Bengal, India. Women are heavily involved in potato farming in West Bengal, but often in overlooked areas of work such as seed cutting and seed treatment, typically done at home. As a result, most PepsiCo registered farmers are men.

The partnership hypothesized that increasing women’s visibility and participation in PepsiCo’s supply chain would positively contribute to important tangible and intangible business metrics for the company, including increased productivity and profitability for farming families, adoption of sustainable farming practices, increased supplier base size and retention, and improved brand loyalty.

The partnership worked with women and men farmers in 11 target communities and PepsiCo employees to increase gender equality awareness and women’s access to critical productive resources in order to meet both women’s empowerment and PepsiCo's business objectives.