Workshops on linking farmers to markets

Accra workshop participants

9 July 2012. Johannesburg. 11 July 2012 Nairobi. 13 July 2012, Accra. A4I, ODI and FANRPAN hosted three regional African workshops as part of their 'Leaping and Learning: Taking Agricultural Successes to Scale' project.

In partnership with the Food Agriculture Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network [FANRPAN], the one-day workshops compared experiences of linking farmers to markets. Provisional results of a comparative analysis of cases of linking small farmers to markets were presented, drawing on the wealth of practical experience seen in the field.

Nairobi workshop participants

The aim was to compare these to the insights of participants, most of whom worked actively in the region on linking small farmers to markets.

How best can small-scale family farms in Africa be linked to markets, get access to inputs, finance and know-how to stimulate agricultural growth and reduce poverty? How can this be done both effectively and equitably? How can successes be scaled up and replicated?

Johannesburg workshop participants

form the focus of ‘Leaping and Learning: Strategies for Taking Agricultural Successes to Scale’ being carried out by the Agriculture for Impact team based at Imperial College London working together with the Overseas Development Institute. 


Check out the blog at www.ag4impact.wordpress.com/ for further details on all three workshops.

From Vision to Action, Africa’s Next Chapter

World Economic Forum on Africa 2011

Cape Town, South Africa, 4-6 May 2011
From Vision to Action, Africa’s Next Chapter 

“Partnerships are desirable and necessary and have worked well for us,” Tanzanian President Jakaya M. Kikwete told participants in a session on innovative partnerships for development. Added Kofi Annan “Our vision is not just to help farmers to feed themselves but also to feed the markets so Africa can become part of the global food security system. This is not a pipe dream.”


Dr Lindiwe Majele Sibanda, FANRPAN Chief Executive Officer, participated in the panel discussion.

News Release | Livestreamed Sessions

Despite long-standing commercial ties with Europe, Africa now conducts half its trade with developing economic regions. Against the popular perception of Africa being exploited by resource-hungry China, South-South collaboration is beneficiary to both sides. China and India are both engaging notably in the continent’s development. African countries can particularly benefit from such collaboration by encouraging the transfer of technologies.

Livestream Sessions | Session Summary

“I am sure that you could literally point to each African state almost as a case study of how elections should not be conducted,” said Morgan Tsvangarai, Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, in an interview for the World Economic Forum. He spoke to the Forum about the challenges of stabilizing democracy in Zimbabwe and throughout Africa.

Watch the interview

The leaders of South Africa, Gabon and Kenya pledged to work together and take a united stance at the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP 17) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Durban, South Africa, in November. In a session on the Durban Agenda, the panellists agreed that governments must work with business and civil society to shape a new framework on global warming

News Release | Livestream sessions

A declaration of partnership has been announced between the South Africa Department of Water Affairs and the 2030 Water Resources Group. The announcement was made by Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs of South Africa Edna Molewa, Chairman of Nestlé and Chairman of the Water Resources Group Peter Brabeck-Letmathe. With water demand set to rise by 52% within the next 30 years in South Africa, the South African government joins the governments of Jordan, Mexico and the State of Karnataka in India as a partner with the Water Resources Group, an influential public-private global network on water supported by the World Economic Forum and the International Finance Corporation.

Declaration of Partnership | News Release

The World Economic Forum on Africa 2011 opened with a call for Africa to rethink its global role. “You can no longer talk about the old Africa,” declared South African President Jacob G. Zuma during the opening plenary session. “We need to develop very urgently partnerships that are different from the past, relationships that benefit Africa more.”

News Release | Livestream sessions 

Three leading social entrepreneurs were recognized as Regional Social Entrepreneurs of the Year for Africa. They were presented with their awards by Hilde Schwab, Co-Founder of the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, in a ceremony held after the opening plenary of the World Economic Forum on Africa. The winners, who work across Africa, are among a group of 17 Social Entrepreneurs from around the world who are taking part in the meeting.

News Release | Livestream sessions

The Africa Competitiveness Report 2011, jointly produced by the African Development Bank, the World Bank and the World Economic Forum, takes stock of the competitiveness of Africa. The report finds that increasing trade, enhancing higher education, ensuring entrepreneurial opportunities for women and developing the tourism sector are important for improving the region’s economic prospects.

Read the report | News Release | Interviews 

PwC have compiled a Knowledge Conciergefor the World Economic Forum on Africa consisting of Fast Facts and briefing papers on subjects relating to the themes of the meeting.

PwC Knowledge Concierge

Katherine Tweedie, Director, Head of Africa and several of our co-chairs share their thoughts on the World Economic Forum on Africa. They look at the key issues that will be addressed at the meeting, as well as looking forward to the highlights to come. Photos from the World Economic Forum on Africa. See the full set and photos on Flickr

This year, the Africa Progress Report is dedicated to the transformative power of partnerships. While the idea of pooling a range of actors and their energy, creativity and resources around specific development challenges is hardly new, too few success stories are replicated or brought to scale to effect lasting structural change. Against this backdrop, this year’s report identifies partnership models that have already proven their transformative potential and assesses how to create the policy framework and incentive structure needed to spur further collaboration for progress. The report argues that all actors, including governments, international organizations, the private sector and civil society, can do more to facilitate the spread of successful models across sectors and countries, and that doing so is in their self-interest. It also argues that much work remains to be done to convince all sides of the inherent benefits of partnering for progress. This is the main purpose of this report.

Empowering Smallholder Farmers in Markets

One of the side events at the 3rd European Forum on Rural Development was about Linking smallholder farmers to efficient markets. Wednesday, March 30th. This side event was coordinated by Agrinatura. The moderator: was Giel Ton of ESFIM. 

Case Studies:

1. Costa Rica: Fernando Saenz
2. Ghana: Matieyedou Kolambigue
3. Kenya: Daphne Gatwiri
4. Vietnam: Paule Moustier
5. Tanzania: Jacob Maiseli

Background

ESFIM’s overall objective is to generate demand-driven action research supportive to the policy activities undertaken by farmers’ organisations to strengthen the capacities of smallholder farmers in developing countries to generate remunerative cash income from markets by creating an enabling policy and regulatory environment as well as effective economic organisations and institutions.

Collaborative Research

There is a research support to eleven national farmers’ organisations that strengthen their capacities to formulate feasible, evidence-based propositions for changes in key elements in the institutional environment that empower smallholder farmers in markets.

Activities: NFOs from the selected countries will steer a research partnership for empowering their smallholder farmers in markets using research support of European and local researchers to feed discussions on smallholder market access within a farmer driven platform and a sequence of participatory workshops.

Outputs: NFO’s will have a pro-active lobby agenda related with smallholder farmers in markets, and a set of written technically sound propositions for changes in specific key elements in the institutional environment

Results: NFO’s will be capable to more effectively voice their specific research requirements and link up with researchers that can support them in executing their research activities.

The activities related to the Collaborative Research benefited in particular from a grant from the Dutch Ministry of Economy, Agriculture and Innovation (EL&I) with funds from the Dutch Ministry of Development Cooperation (DGIS). Most of the funds are used to pay for the local research support and participatory workshops and will be subcontracted to the eleven participating National Farmers Organizations (NFOs). 

Comparative Research

In parallel to Collaborative Research actions, the activities related to Comparative Research continue and focus on Innovative Financial Models, Market Information Systems, Incentives in Collective Marketing and Risk Insurance. First outcomes of the research are now available through the ESFIM web-site.

European Research Partner

AGRINATURA 

The AGRINATURA members involved in the ESFIM research are:
Wageningen University and Research Centre (Wageningen UR)
Natural Resources Institute (NRI)
Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (CIRAD)

Main Partners

IFAD – International Fund for Agricultural Development
AGRICORD – Alliance of Agri-agencies

CTA – Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU

Collaborative Research Partners : 

Benin / Kenya / Madagascar / Malawi / South Africa / Uganda / India / Phillipines / Peru / Uruguay / Costa Rica

For more detailed results, please refer to the “expected results” heading of each country work package.

Regional Policy Dialogue on Promoting Access to Regional and International Markets for Agricultural Commodities in Eastern and Southern Africa

24-25 March 2010, Nairobi, Kenya. Regional Policy Dialogue on Promoting Access to Regional and International Markets for Agricultural Commodities in Easter and Southern Africa.

Objective: To increase awareness about policy issues affecting regional and international agricultural trade, promote dialogue among policymakers and key stakeholders on these issues, and to catalyze a consensus-building process toward trade enhancing policies.

Co-organizers of the Dialogue:

• SADC-FANR - www.sadc.int/fanr/
• ASARECA - www.asareca.org/
• CTA -www.cta.int/
• ECDPM - www.ecdpm.org/
• FDA - democracy-africa.org/

Group Photograph

                                                                                  

        Breakout sessions                                

                                                    

                                        

Farmers and markets

Globalisation of the agricultural economy has led to rapid changes in the way that agricultural products are produced, transported and sold. As commodity prices decline and value chains become more complex, smallholder farmers are encouraged to produce high value crops and engage in value-adding activities, such as agro-processing, to increase their incomes. But whilst new market opportunities offer a chance for increased prosperity, many still face a multitude of barriers in effectively accessing markets, even at local level.

Farmer organisation is a critical factor in improving farmers' access to markets. The January Edition of the New Agriculturist features initiatives being promoted to enhance market access at local, regional and global level. From pigs and potatoes in Vietnam and Inner Mongolia, to coffee, rice, onions and high-value vegetables in Africa and cocoa in the rainforests of Ecuador, we highlight how farmers are coming together to improve their access to established markets and take advantage of emerging market opportunities.

Ethiopia's high-tech commodity exchange

Launched in April 2008, the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) has revolutionised coffee sales. Initially focussed on immediate sale and delivery of beans, the Exchange is now moving towards trade in coffee futures and speciality coffees.

Commercial villages: improving market access

With help from Farm Concern International, onion farmers in Nyeri, Kenya, have grouped together to form 'commercial villages'. By improving their marketing and farming practices, these farmer groups have successfully increased their yields and incomes.

Trading up in the rice sector in Nigeria

With the backing of a local bank and the support of a marketing development project, women rice parboilers in Kano State have become traders of rice and, with the introduction of new technology, improved the quality of the rice they sell.

Zambia: meeting a tall order

In a drought-prone province of southern Zambia, community groups have invested in drip irrigation to grow high value vegetables, year-round, and are now supplying some of the country's most luxurious hotels.

Related: FARA is holding between 01/02 and 16/03 an online discussion on ‘Promoting Access to Regional and International Markets for Agricultural Commodities in Eastern and Southern Africa. The electronic group discussion provides an open space to stimulate discussion and elicit ideas on crucial agricultural trade policy issues in Eastern and Southern Africa. It involves policymakers, academics, researchers, representatives of SROs and RECs, farmers’ organizations, representatives from business community, NGOs and other civil society groups. The outcomes of the electronic group discussion will be collated. Thereafter, a detailed summary paper of the discussion will be presented during a face to face Eastern and Southern Africa regional policy dialogue workshop – 17th – 18th, March, 2010 in Nairobi, Kenya.