Organisations of small-scale ecological producers are growing at both local and national levels. Peasants and family farmers are rebuilding and reclaiming their identities, against the grain. They have put food sovereignty on the global agenda.

Many development agencies consider the integration of smallscale producers and their organisations into value chains as a priority issue. But there is more at stake: as Christian Gouët says in this issue of Farming Matters, all over the world, farmers are seriously constrained by policies and regulations. They need to participate in policy dialogues and decision-making processes.

Clearly, not all farmers are buying into the global agribusiness model. Mamadou Coulybaly, the Secretary General of the National Peasants Organisation of Mali (CNOP) explicitly raised this point at one of the preparatory meetings for the Rio+20 conference when he asked about the “model to achieve a green economy”: “Monocultures are bad for biodiversity. Growing crops that need a huge amount of mineral fertilizers damages the soil. Such development models defeat the purpose of a truly green economy. We are not against markets. But we want family farming to survive as a way of life and want to feed our population”.

These are remarkable developments at a time when land grabs are happening at an unprecedented scale – and when the chairman of the Executive Board of Wageningen University claims that the Dutch model of intensive agriculture is the one that will feed the world in 2050.

Strong organisations of family farmers are showing the world that farming is about more than money. Let farmers’ organisations share their experiences, so as to inspire others. There is still a long way to go, and the challenges are only increasing. But peasants and family farmers’ movements have gathered strength in Rio and will build further on this, with the International Year of Family Farming around the corner.

Edith van Walsum
director ILEIA

The post Editorial – Against the grain appeared first on Ileia.

Since the 1990s, the closure of many public extension services in the Sahel has had a severe impact on farming. The limited support provided by most governments is even more striking given that agriculture accounts for an average 45-60% of the region’s GNP, it employs 70-80% of the population and is the largest export sector after mining.

Today, producers are facing profound changes – economic, geo-climatic and institutional – which require adaptations and new skills, especially in the current context of chronic food insecurity.

Farmer organisations (FOs) bring together the producers in a region, and thus group and represent the end users of every training process. Faced with the challenges mentioned above, it seems logical to conclude that they are better able to de!ne and articulate the training needs of farmers in a given area, according to the needs of the market, but also according to the social, cultural and technical features of a region.

Even better, FOs are not just simple intermediaries that can identify and select the target group. In most cases they are able to provide training courses themselves, since they know the problems farmers face, and the potential solutions, better than anybody else. The costs of training and of providing extension services can also be lowered if it is carried out by farmer organisations themselves. This can be a very positive factor for scaling up and reaching a large number of producers.

In practice, however, the training courses organised and conducted by FOs are not always systematic or comprehensive, and may depend on existing opportunities, which can be quite often linked to the presence of projects. And it’s true that the quality of trainings varies greatly: the trainers are not always prepared, leaders not always fully involved, cost control is not a major concern, and there is frequently no post-training assessment. Sometimes the role of FOs can be limited to identifying the target groups and selecting participants, without having neither the ownership nor the responsibility for training.

This lack of ownership is part of a long-term pattern. Historically, many FOs in West Africa were created in order to represent the farmers in a region and bring the voices of producers into the legislative frameworks and the elaboration of national policies. But they were not intended to provide services to their members. The SahelAgroFormation project (SAF) wanted to work with them in a different way, and support those organisations wishing to train their members on their own.

This is the main objective of our work with the Coordination of Peasant Organisations of Mali (CNOP, in French), the Peasants’ Platform of Niger, and also organisations such as the Regional Union of Agricultural Cooperatives of Kayes (URCAK) in Mali. In both Mali and Niger, SAF’s aim has been to establish sustainable training mechanisms, and not just to train beneficiaries.

A mutual learning process

The history of rural West Africa is tainted by the presence and excessive power of outsiders: colonists, urban elites, state representatives, etc. These outsiders represented the interests of what are known as the “economic growth sectors”, such as cotton or peanuts, and to some extent they still do.

Focusing on commercialising these products, they offer technological packages that include incentives such as access to credit or specific inputs. Many training programmes are then built around these packages, relying on incentives or subsidising the training courses, or even remunerating participants for attending. Farmers have little choice.

We too started by identifying the “growth sectors” for which training is needed. However, we were especially interested in the local demand. In economics, the term “demand” refers to the needs and wishes of consumers or recipients. Thus, instead of planning and implementing a training process which focused only on those crops or techniques which are part of the “growth sectors”, our project focused on what the farmers were demanding. In so doing, we were surprised by the concerns of our partners. What interested them primarily was political legitimacy – or ownership – of the training process, and especially of the subjects taught.

Our work with farmer organisations in West Africa taught us that agricultural and rural training in the region needs a different approach, as it is largely and inevitably a political issue. It is different from (say) repairing a motorcycle engine, which does not force us to opt for a speci!c development model, as the skills and components required do not fundamentally change from one place to another. Agriculture is not the same. A detailed study in the Sahel put it clearly: “One of the main lessons learned was that there are no technically perfect solutions, but that all solutions are political. Therefore aid agencies have no legitimacy to offer” (Loic Barbedette, 2002).

Without abandoning the required economic focus, we at SAF decided to support the political aims of our partners, gaining credibility and their trust. This choice greatly strengthened our position and ability to carry out our activities – to the point of being able to conduct trainings without external funding.

From the local context to agro-ecology

When our project started, one of our objectives was to see training as one of the possible responses to some of the numerous and complex issues faced in the Sahel. This meant analysing the context and overall setting, and not limiting ourselves to the local opportunities for commercialisation.

But which context(s) to focus on? We had a clear point of view. So did the leaders of different organisations. And, what about the farmers and producers who were to be the users of the service? We had to ask ourselves what type of farming to focus on.

Working with farmers and their organisations, we saw that the definition of the context is the first political act of any action; that there is nothing less objective than de!ning the context. This starting point leads to a series of strategies, actions and outcomes. While projects frequently focus on markets and commercialisation (access, diversity, inclusion), farmers prioritise production factors (soil, water, land), and organisation leaders focus on issues such as ownership, sovereignty, and empowerment.

Most producers wanted us to initially tackle what they see as their fundamental problems, starting with the fertility of their soils and the access to land and water. Is it appropriate to explore ways to market a specific product, or to grow a new seed, if the farmer does not even have control over these key elements of production?

Not surprisingly, an agro-ecological approach emerged as the central element of the agricultural training offer. The reasons seemed obvious to all those we were working with: agro-ecology helps restore the soil, while offering good positive returns (especially in the Sahel). It can be easily understood and appropriated by farmers (some of whom have been practicing agroforestry for several centuries), and, most of all, it is economically viable. For producers, agro-ecology is a culturally and economically attractive technical solution to their concerns. It also provides much-needed resilience. For farmer organisations, agro-ecology is part of the process towards food sovereignty.

To be continued…

After only a few years, we have more than 40 training modules in agro-ecology, all of which have been developed or adapted with local producers and their organisations. Up to 65 local techniques have been identified in Niger (including 17 agro-ecological techniques that are not taught in agricultural schools) as part of our efforts in valorising and disseminating endogenous knowledge. All of these are being shared with producers through the trainings. As a whole, this is the first formal and more or less complete training package that is truly adapted to the region.

A network of local trainers, or “peasant relays”, is being set up in Mali and Niger, operating with the maximum possible level of self-financing. In the same way, agricultural advisory services by farmers’ organisations are being developed in Mali and Niger, with the objective of expanding and standardising the basic training systems, and having more influence on national policies, donors and other projects. As one of the representatives of the Horticultural Network of Kayes (RHK in French) put it, “This is the future. We need to create this pool of trainers and ensure the stability of the training process. This gives us the chance to save money, reinforces our internal cohesion, and lets us focus on what we want“.

In addition to these results, and to the important task of expanding them further in the coming years, the most important lesson has been that farmer organisations have shown to those who boast years and years of training experience in West Africa: that training is never neutral. Training inevitably conveys doctrines and ideologies, and thus preferences. It is above all politics – especially in agriculture. NGOs must focus more on supporting the projects and visions of their partners, rather than pushing them to follow our perceptions of what development is. Through learning from producers and their organisations we can develop ourselves and learn to better do our job.

Yves Matthijs

Yves Matthijs (coordin_saf@live.fr) works as project manager for SahelAgroFormation. This is a project implemented by Swisscontact and funded by a European Union grant, which has the objective of developing “agricultural and rural training services based on demand”.
More information can be found at http://swisscontactniger.org/04_0SAF.htm

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The Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) was one of many organisations which became involved in regenerating agriculture in Aceh in the wake of the tsunami. Although we were well aware that many post-disaster development programmes are criticised for having a limited impact, we wanted to support rural communities stru

ggling to recover from the loss of life, displacement and breakdown of community networks. Our projects were research-centred, seeking solutions to the soil and crop problems farmers faced after the tsunami.

Our early consultations and forums were predominantly attended by male farmers and government staff. A chance meeting with Ibu Supriyani, an inspirational extension agent working on the tsunami-devastated west coast of Aceh with Penyuluh Petani Lapang, the local extension organisation, showed us the importance of providing direct assistance to women farmers. As elsewhere in Indonesia, women in rural Aceh are highly dependent on farming for their livelihoods, but we could not see many programmes supporting them.

Small benefits add up

Supriyani had established organic agriculture groups made up of women farmers, working to provide an occupation for women who had no work in the tsunami-damaged rice fields and limited opportunities elsewhere. With limited funds, the participants were making their own fertiliser from fish waste and manure, and growing crops on vacant plots. The women’s engagement and enjoyment of working together to produce food for home and sale, and their interest in learning new skills, inspired us to include seed money for women’s farming activities in a new project. The funds helped Supriyani provide training, establish new groups and meet the growing demand to participate in the programme.

The initial financial support provided to the groups was small, but by focusing on leadership and capacity building, the benefits endure, as groups establish a solid basis for the future. Growing fresh food locally saves money, which can then be invested in, for example, education. Fresh organic crops now form a greater part of the diets of these families, improving their general health. Training and capacity building has helped diversify the local food production options, creating more independent and sustainable communities. Some groups have taken their development further, identifying business opportunities to supply fresh and processed products to local and regional markets. All this happens without disrupting family activities in the rice fields and rubber plantations.

Bringing women together, the start of a network?

It was not long before we met other extension staff working with groups of women farmers, so we decided to bring them all together in a forum to identify which activities should be supported. The discussions and recommendations from this !rst forum, which was held in Aceh in 2009, helped us design a training programme for women. This programme was built on Supriyani’s model of group management; the group members’ commitment, the management of pro!ts, and also on an organic approach to farming vegetables. This provided other extension staff with a guideline to establish new groups.

In 2009, Balai Pengkajian Teknologi Pertanian (BPTP), the provincial agricultural service, appointed Ibu Nazariah as co-ordinator of the women’s farming groups, with the specific responsibility of establishing and managing the programme. Since then, Nazariah has been assisted by volunteers from the Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development programme, and by an increasing number of local extension staff who provide the day to day support to the groups. In 3 years, the total number of participants has grown from 60 to more than 700 women. The programme’s credibility is reinforced by its training and communication activities and by regular interactions with the local staff. Some groups are now financially independent and act as hubs for the demonstration and dissemination of new ideas.

The most interesting observation, however, is that the programme has evolved into a network of women farmers and advisory staff, who maintain contact through exchange visits and farmer forums. Attending a meeting in July 2011, farmers and representatives of both the government and a group of NGOs that support or work with women discussed the establishment of a Women in Agriculture Network in Aceh, following similar examples in Australia and Papua New Guinea. We agreed on the goals and structure of the proposed network and started working to formally establish it.

From isolation to leadership

Immediately after the tsunami, the focus of most programmes was on soil rehabilitation and agricultural recovery. Working in the more accessible parts of Aceh we rare

ly saw the impacts of the civil conflict that has lasted nearly 30 years. While the impact on infrastructure has been reported, the social and psychological impacts are rarely mentioned. Visiting some women’s farming groups in the more isolated parts of Aceh, we began to understand the conflict’s wider impact.

Social isolation and limited access to social services are some of the lasting effects of the conflict in Aceh. Rural networks were affected by the loss of life and displacement, and in some cases farming ceased altogether because of the difficulties and danger of working in the fields. In many rural villages access to technical assistance and resources such as seed remains difficult.

Comprehensive strategies to develop community-based programmes are crucial to meeting the challenges of the estimated 600,000 people displaced by the conflict. The women farmers programme meets some of the needs of local communities, providing income generating activities and promoting communication and co-operation within and between villages.

Whilst not all groups in the women farmers programme are situated in areas that were affected by the conflict, the social contribution of our communication and co-operation efforts is recognised as the main benefit by the Aceh women. The group farming activities provide a focus for social interaction, which is often missing in the villages. In former conflict zones women spoke of years of remaining isolated in their homes, only leaving when it was deemed safe to work in the rice fields. Coming together as a group has provided a renewal of village life, and a good opportunity to work together and help each other deal with past difficulties.

And the programme not only addresses the isolation and needs of women farmers, but also recognises that poorly resourced advisory staff struggle to obtain the necessary knowledge, training and experience to help rural farmers. A “training of trainers” programme that covers soils, crop nutrition, pests and diseases, group dynamics and financial management is spreading knowledge and technical skills to advisory staff and members of the established and new groups.

The need for leadership training was identified as a number one priority at the second Women Farmers’ Forum, held in 2010 in Bireuen. Groups with strong leadership have taken advantage of opportunities to approach local governments and businesses for support as they expand their activities and become more established. Not surprisingly, the more organised groups tend to be situated closer to urban areas and the members have a higher level of education. But the exchange visits that have become a regular activity provide an opportunity for all groups, such as those made up of young conflict widows, or those established in the post-tsunami communities along the west coast, to learn from the more established groups.

Forming new networks, strengthening old ones

The women farmers programme in Aceh has been successful because there is a specific purpose in all group activities, and these activities provide specific benefits for the women, their families and communities. Equally important is the long term support that has been provided, addressing the women’ needs and interests, and strengthening local capacities. An emphasis on creating links to the education, health and nutrition initiatives of local agencies has further strengthened interactions with other networks. Without excluding men, a specific focus on women empowers participants, and ensures that the ownership and development of the Women in Agriculture Network remains with women.

A network for women farmers in Aceh has started. It may or may not develop into a formally recognised organisation, but it is already having a positive impact, and it may help extend the benefits currently enjoyed by the women farmers groups to other parts of Aceh, especially to isolated hinterland communities that are still struggling to come to terms with the impacts of the conflict.

Gavin Tinning

Gavin Tinning works with the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries. 1243 Bruxner Highway, Wollongbar, NSW, 2477, Australia.
E-mail: gavin.tinning@dpi.nsw.gov.au

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Most capacity building programmes for farmers and their organisations focus on the development of the skills needed for linking them to value-chains, and only slightly, and to a diminishing degree, on policy-related lobbying and advocacy. More and more attention is being given to marketing and business management skills, and with it to higher incomes and profits.

Obviously, these capacities are desirable, yet they are clearly not enough. All over the world, farmers’ businesses are seriously constrained by policies and regulations. As well as having the necessary business skills, farmer organisations also need to participate in policy dialogues and decision-making processes, influencing the rules and regulations that affect them and their businesses.

This was highlighted almost twenty years ago by a World Bank study (“The plundering of agriculture”, by M. Schiff and A. Valdez, 1992), showing the impact of the many different policies and regulations used by governments in developing countries to keep food prices low. The authors estimated that, between 1960 and the 1980s, farmers received 45% less than the real value of their produce. In short, farmers have been systematically plundered to ensure low food prices.

The current “food crisis” is already being widely discussed, with analysts and policy makers arguing for ways to lower food prices. But, paradoxically, farmers are regularly confronted with low prices for their products, and need to continuously innovate in order to reduce their costs. Who pays the cost of these innovation processes? Farmers. Their incomes and profits are hugely influenced by national and international regulations, which let this “plundering” process continue.

It is important that farmers and their organisations can meaningfully engage in policy dialogues and policy making processes. Efforts need to be made to develop the necessary capacities and appropriate conditions for them to participate effectively. As such, development programmes should pay attention to the policies and regulations that shape the different fields in which they are active. International institutions need to work with national governments and with the multilateral platforms in order to create open spaces for the participation of farmer organisations in local, regional and international policy making processes.

An approach such as the Participatory Generation of Positions and Proposals (PGPP, see page 30) can help link these organisations with policy makers. This type of approach is needed so that farmers’ organisations can effectively participate in the processes that shape rules and regulations, tackling all those policies that affect farmers’ incomes. This means, making good use of the opportunities for farmers to “upload problems” to decision makers, and to “download solutions” for those problems in the rural areas.

Christian Gouët

Born in Chile and based in France, Christian Gouët works as an international consultant in the field of farmer organisations, agribusinesses and rural development.
E-mail: christian.gouet@live.fr

The post Opinion: Beyond value chains appeared first on Ileia.

Many farmer groups in Nepal were originally set up to help disseminate new technologies and extension services to large numbers of farmers – an approach that has been adopted by many development organisations. But the link between farmers and their groups, and the conservation and sustainable use of agricultural biodiversity, has often been underrated and neglected, both in terms of policies and practices.

As a consequence, too few farmers are aware of biodiversity-related activities, and farming communities are losing their genetic resources and becoming increasingly dependent on outside sources for seeds and planting materials.

Working with farmer organisations has been the approach of LI-BIRD (Local Initiatives for Biodiversity, Research and Development), a non-governmental organisation in Nepal. Complementing previous efforts on on-farm conservation, this “inclusive” approach started in the Kaski district in central Nepal in 2006, leading to the establishment of a BCDC. Until now, a total of 30 BCDCs have been formed across Nepal.

The formation and structure of BCDCs

Like all districts, Kaski is divided into several Village Development Committees (VDCs, the equivalent of a municipality). Each VDC is further divided into nine wards. These administrative units are autonomous, but lack the mandate or the resources to carry out research or other activities related to agriculture and biodiversity. Realising this gap, and keen to promote participatory processes, we started our work with a series of ward-level meetings, aiming to establish ward-level BCDCs in one of Kaski’s VDCs, Rupakot.

Each committee was to consist of nine members, including women, dalit and indigenous people, and had to elect a chairperson, vice chairperson, secretary and treasurer. This process was repeated in all nine wards and a VDC-level committee was formed with a representative from each ward.

All VDC households became committee members by default. But setting up the BCDC also meant preparing bylaws and internal rules and procedures for electing representatives, and determining the committee’s mandate. Since 2006, the mandate has been to ensure the conservation and sustainable use of the area’s genetic resources through a community-based planning process, and undertaking specific activities towards this goal. A general assembly takes place every year with the participation of all BCDC members, sharing the results achieved and developing a work plan for the coming year.

Individuals, groups and benefits

Farmers are interested in higher yields and incomes, but are they also interested in joining hands to conserve local biodiversity? It is very difficult to include all farmers in conservation-related activities, but the BCDCs do aim to involve most of them in different ways: with home gardens or by producing and marketing seeds. These approaches increase farmers’ awareness of the importance of conserving local agrobiodiversity while, at the same time, showing long-term benefits.
Linking local biodiversity with markets can help farmers’ significantly increase their incomes, making them more willing to grow some species.
These benefits are now widely visible. Farmers in a BCDC in Begnas Kaski (in Lekhnath, central Nepal) are marketing local foods such as masaura, tandra, gava and khasaura (made of taro leaves, stem and roots), and anadi rice (a sticky rice which has cultural value and medicinal properties).
The BCDC in Shivagunj, in the Jhapa district, produces and sells a local aromatic rice variety named kalonuniya, which fetches a much higher price than other varieties; while farmers in the BCDC of Ghanteshower, in the Doti district, process and market a traditional vinegar using local citrus varieties. All these enterprises are owned by the groups and the benefits are shared equally between all members.
Not all species and varieties can be marketed. But many local varieties have other benefits: they are context-specific and are resilient to the changing environmental conditions. This is especially important in a country like Nepal, where most villagers cultivate plots in different locations, with different agro-ecological conditions, appropriate to different crops and varieties.
Farmers also like to grow a range of varieties to meet different economic, cultural and social needs. This means that many of them grow “modern” varieties and hybrids for the market and local varieties for home consumption.
Our sensitisation efforts build on this approach: we engage local farmers in different activities and let them assess the values of different species in a way that they realise the significance and benefits of biodiversity.

Participatory planning and implementation

Individuals, groups and benefits

Farmers are interested in higher yields and incomes, but are they also interested in joining hands to conserve local biodiversity? It is very difficult to include all farmers in conservation-related activities, but the BCDCs do aim to involve most of them in different ways: with home gardens or by producing and marketing seeds. These approaches increase farmers’ awareness of the importance of conserving local agrobiodiversity while, at the same time, showing long-term benefits.

Linking local biodiversity with markets can help farmers’ significantly increase their incomes, making them more willing to grow some species.

These benefits are now widely visible. Farmers in a BCDC in Begnas Kaski (in Lekhnath, central Nepal) are marketing local foods such as masaura, tandra, gava and khasaura (made of taro leaves, stem and roots), and anadi rice (a sticky rice which has cultural value and medicinal properties).

The BCDC in Shivagunj, in the Jhapa district, produces and sells a local aromatic rice variety named kalonuniya, which fetches a much higher price than other varieties; while farmers in the BCDC of Ghanteshower, in the Doti district, process and market a traditional vinegar using local citrus varieties. All these enterprises are owned by the groups and the benefits are shared equally between all members.

Not all species and varieties can be marketed. But many local varieties have other benefits: they are context-specific and are resilient to the changing environmental conditions. This is especially important in a country like Nepal, where most villagers cultivate plots in different locations, with different agro-ecological conditions, appropriate to different crops and varieties.

Farmers also like to grow a range of varieties to meet different economic, cultural and social needs. This means that many of them grow “modern” varieties and hybrids for the market and local varieties for home consumption.

Our sensitisation efforts build on this approach: we engage local farmers in different activities and let them assess the values of different species in a way that they realise the significance and benefits of biodiversity.

Once the committee was established we started with an awareness raising campaign and a series of capacity building activities, aiming to sensitise the farming community on the importance of local biodiversity, and to get people engaged in conservation initiatives.

This was first organised by LI-BIRD, but the role was gradually taken by the BCDCs themselves. They began to organise village “diversity fairs”, village workshops, exchange visits, rural song and dance competitions, and diverse activities with schools.

Given the importance of understanding the local context before starting any intervention, another key activity has been the documentation of local agricultural biodiversity, traditional knowledge and related innovations. This involved setting up a Community Biodiversity Register, a participatory inventory which identifies the most interesting practices.

Together with other organisations, LI-BIRD has also trained a few members of each BCDC to document the local crops and varieties, local practices and ideas, and then develop an action plan.

These plans included setting up community seed banks or home gardens. LI-BIRD provided some initial funding but all the BCDCs have gradually taken on the role of mobilising local resources.

A biodiversity management fund was also established in Kaski, and later in every BCDC. The fund gives loans at a low interest rate, giving priority to the poor and needy within each village, helping them start different income generation activities (such as rearing animals, adding value or marketing local foods).

An important provision for taking a loan is that the borrower has to grow at least one rare and unique crop and distribute its seeds to other members. These funds are completely owned and managed by each BCDC, and have to comply with rules approved by the general assembly.

The results show that this is not just another form of microcredit to increase access to financial resources. Each fund generates a regular income in the form of interest for the BCDC. This means the groups are able to continue working after external support stops.

Promoting farmers’ rights

These initiatives have helped farmers recognise the importance of their genetic resources, but have also helped them see the importance of issues such as ownership and control.

The Nepalese Government has ratified the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) and the development of national legislation is underway. However, very few farmers know about the inclusion of farmers’ rights or about the implications of the new laws. One of the reasons for this is the lack of proper mechanisms to communicate with farmers. The establishment of farmers’ organisations, such as the BCDCs, could play an important role here. As legal owners of all genetic resources, farmers are to approve their use by outsiders. Representing farmers, a BCDC could help ensure that the economic benefits reach them.

There is still a lot to do, but we feel we are on the right track. Two years ago LI-BIRD facilitated a two-day workshop of BCDCs, involving genetic resources experts, lawyers and representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture Development and of the National Gene Bank. One of the results of this meeting was the establishment of the Agriculture Development and Conservation Farmers Committee and the drafting of the “Pokhara Declaration”, which was shared with more than 600 members of Nepal’s Constituent Assembly.

The Ministry of Agriculture Development, together with LI-BIRD and the National Agriculture Research Council, has started a genetic resources policy initiatives project, which involves farmers as representatives of the aforementioned ad hoc committee. The goal is to join all Nepal’s BCDCs into one nationwide organisation of farmers, and thereby promote our dual objectives: conservation and development.

Pitambar Shrestha and Pashupati Chaudhary

Pitambar Shrestha (pitambar@libird.org) and Pashupati Chaudhary (pchaudhary@libird.org) work at Local Initiatives for Biodiversity, Research and Development (LI-BIRD). PO Box 324, Gairapatan, Pokhara, Kaski, Nepal. For more information, visit their website: www.libird.org

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REAP-Canada and its partners work with rural farming communities in developing countries that endure a host of environmental challenges, such as droughts, deforestatio

n and soil degradation. Farmers in these areas suffer from low yields and are vulnerable to climate change.

“In essence, they need an overhaul of their agricultural systems,” says Meredith Kushnir, the International Program Coordinator. Using the AEV approach, communities can become more self-reliant and resilient.

“Our projects help them to become more self-sufficient through ecological farming and increased on-farm diversity for both their immediate food needs as well as for increased income generation.”

The AEV is a holistic approach to rural development that is rooted in the organisation and empowerment of communities. The starting point of any AEV project is to organise existing groups, such as farmers’ organisations or women’s groups, into one community-based organisation (CBO) and get them talking about the challenges they face and how to address them collectively.

“REAP-Canada is an independent, non-profit organisation that has been working since 1986 to develop ecological agriculture both in Canada and abroad. The AEV model was developed in 1999 in the Philippines with local partners. Since then, AEV projects have also been implemented in China, Gambia and Senegal.
For more information on the project in the Philippines see an article in LEISA Magazine 16.4 (December 2000). To find out more about the approach and how to use it, visit www.reap-canada.com or contact Meredith Kushnir at mkushnir@reap-canada.com.”

These CBOs play a key role in coordinating farmer-to-farmer training, distributing ecological farm materials and equipment, and organising community-wide programmes such as seed saving, value-addition, sustainable poultry and organic fertiliser production. Some farmers will volunteer part of their farm as a “learning farm” for the community, where they test, breed and multiply improved varieties of field crops, vegetables and livestock and test ecological farming techniques, such as intercropping strategies.

“This bottom-up training process allows local farmers to take the lead in community learning and capacity building and builds on what farmers themselves know. They focus on efficiently using all the resources available in their community instead of relying on expensive imported inputs.”

The AEV approach develops these skills in a community, as these form the basis for continuing with the development process beyond the lifespan of the project.

REAP-Canada and local partners work together to develop the specific features of an AEV project within a certain region. Even though the main pillars remain the same, AEV can be adapted to the approaches of partner organisations and the priorities of specific rural communities, which is why it can be carried out in very different contexts, from Gambia to the Philippines. Ms Kushnir concludes: “The AEV’s adaptability to the local context and its roots in bottom-up farmer-led processes are what makes this approach so successful.”

Text: Thomas de la Rue

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Following the framework to analyse the way farmer organisations work that was presented in the June issue of Farming Matters, the Empowering Smallholder Farmers in Marke

ts (ESFIM) research programme is looking in detail at the ways in which organisations handle the tensions between groups and individuals, and is drawing lessons that can help these organisations be more efficient.

Not surprisingly, we’ve found that holding a group together is not easy, and that we all need “organisational intelligence”. The efforts of different organisations in Bolivia illustrate the iterative process that leads to organisational learning.

Quality Assurance Systems

In collective marketing, an organisation will de!ne the terms of trade on the basis of the quality and quantity it can offer. Once a deal is made, the organisation has to ensure that its members’ products meet the defined standards.

“We had problems with members who supplied tarwi (a traditional Andean cereal) of a lower quality. To solve this, we introduced sanctions for those who did this more than once, fining them Bs 100 (or US$ 15). These sanctions are not included in our statutes, but were agreed to in our Assembly. Quality control is done by a specially appointed board member, who has to taste the tarwi and then decide whether to accept or reject the product. To prevent the influence of family ties we had the entire group observing that no bad products were allowed. This group control has been decisive Hard work Finding rules that keep a group together in making the system work. It also helped that we are a small organisation. The first time there is a problem we just give a warning and this usually prevents any problems reoccurring. Sometimes, we have had to impose sanctions, but only a few members have been fined.” (ASAFOP, an organisation in Sucre selling tarwi to school feeding programmes)

Coping with working capital constraints

Most smallholder farmers face cash constraints. Organisations involved in processing, exporting or supplying governments often have to wait several months before they are paid. While every organisation finds it better to pay its members after all the financial transactions have been completed, most members cannot wait that long.

“We have set up a fund with the pro!ts we make, so we pay our members on delivery of the product. We pay one boliviano per pound of product (‘reintegro’) and use the rest to capitalise this fund. Every member pays an annual contribution of Bs 50. Nevertheless, we are looking for ways to get extra funds as we do not have enough working capital. Due to this shortage, we have to accept that members also sell to other buyers: we cannot prevent them selling their alpaca !bre to others as we cannot always pay them in cash. We need to find strategies to solve this. We are thinking of a bank loan or of an additional member contribution, but this will affect all members, so it has to be planned with caution.” (APCA, an organisation on the Altiplano selling alpaca wool)

Anticipating side-selling

There is a serious risk that farmers “side-sell” their produce to competing traders or processors from whom they receive no services or inputs, and with whom they have no monetary obligations. Most organisations need mechanisms to prevent this occurring and avoid losses, or find other ways to recover the costs incurred in providing services to its members.

“It takes a lot of effort to have ‘loyal’ members. Some do not understand that as an organisation we have additional costs that external agents or brokers do not have. We decided that those who did not supply our organisation exclusively would not benefit from the external support or grants we get as a group. But this did not work. Another mechanism has been to try to convince members of the fairness of the price we pay, developing a cost-benefit analysis in a participatory way. We start indicating the price in the market and the costs we have to pay as an association. Then, we look at the pro!t and we define the on-farm price. Until now, we have not been able to !nd an effective mechanism. Fortunately, fewer than 10% of our members need convincing…” (AOCEMM, an organisation in Tarija supplying honey to a national nutrition programme)

Differentiating between services to members and non-members

Most economic organisations need contributions from their members to do business or to provide efficient services. However, members face a number of disincentives to do so. The most common one is free-riding: why contribute when you can get the same services without being a member?

“In our latest Assembly we decided that members would receive a better price than non-members. We hope to implement this decision this autumn, though it may not work. If we had bigger pro!ts we could pay our members higher prices but we don’t have enough money. And we cannot pay less to non-members: they won’t sell to us if we do not pay them more than our competitors. We do a service that differentiates between members and nonmembers: the grain mill. Members pay Bs 0.50 less for each kilo milled in it, so a lot of producers have indicated their interest in joining our association. However, the existing members are hesitant to allow this because they think that new members will bene!t from the mill without having contributed to it. They argue that new members should pay more, but the new ones do not accept this condition.” (APEMAK, an organisation in a remote area of Azurduy that sells cereals to urban traders)

What are your experiences in dealing with such problems? We are interested in stories that show innovative ways farmer organisations have coped with these and similar challenges when marketing collectively. All contributions will be entered into an extensive database of experiences, which will be accessible through a special website, www.collectivemarketing.org, later this year. Please send your contributions, short or long, told as stories or analysed, to: cases@esfim.org. Be part of this crowd-sourcing project!

Text: Giel Ton, Lithzy Flores and Evaristo Yana

This project benefits from financial support from ICCO, IFAD and the Dutch Government and is part of the ESFIM research support programme to national farmer organisations (www.esfim.org), implemented by AGRINATURA (www.agrinatura.eu) through Wageningen UR, CIRAD and NRI. Giel Ton (giel.ton@wur.nl) is ESFIM’s research co-ordinator. Working with the programme, Lithzy Flores, Evaristo Yana and Rubén Monasterios applied the framework presented in the June issue of Farming Matters in their in-depth interviews with forty Bolivian farmer organisations.

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Reclaim the UN from corporate capture
FOEI, 2012.
Friends of the Earth International, Amsterdam. 32 pages.

Despite its problems, the UN is probably the most democratic and appropriate global institution to solve the climate, environmental, financial and food crises. Many would argue, however, that UN policies, initiatives and negotiations are increasingly shaped by large corporations and businesses. The emergence of a pro-corporate ideology and the increased financial dependence of the UN on multinational corporations has coincided with a shift from policies and measures that address the problems created by these businesses, to policies and measures where corporations feature as part of the solution. This publication explores the idea of “corporate capture” in different programmes and proposals, including the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) initiative.

Beekeeping training for farmers in the Himalayas: Resource manual for trainers
M.B. Gurung, U. Partap, N.C.T.D. Shrestha, H.K. Sharma, N. Islam and N.B. Tamang, 2012.
ICIMOD Kathmandu. 178 pages.

Pollinator bees play an important role in agricultural production, forestry and the maintenance of biodiversity. Pollinated plants make up one third of human diets; 80% of that pollination is done by honey bees. The decline of natural habitats and the increased use of insecticides are now threatening these insects, making the management of domestic bees more important. Bee products, like honey and beeswax, can also be an important source of income, nutrition and medicine. The objective of this training manual is “to build the capacity of family and other related individuals and organisations in managing bee colonies”, and with it enhance both honey production and pollination services in the Himalayan region.

To cook a continent: Destructive extraction and the climate crisis in Africa
N. Bassey, 2012.
Fahamu Books and Pambazuka Press, Cape Town. 190 pages.

Africa is rich. It has 75% of the world’s platinum metals, 50% of the gold, 45-50% of the diamonds, 25-30 % of the bauxite and 10% of the nickel and copper. In this book Nnimmo Bassey, alternative Nobel prize laureate and chair of Friends of the Earth International, gives an extensive and empirically rich description of how Africa’s natural resource wealth has turned into a curse. It shows how the structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) of the World Bank and the IMF, and the capture of Africa’s resources by multinational corporations, have led to major social and environmental disasters in Africa, and how this has contributed to the climate crisis.

Learning for sustainability in times of accelerating change
A.E.J. Wals and P.B. Corcoran (eds.), 2012.
Wageningen Academic Publishers, Wageningen. 550 pages.

With a growing pile of complex information about sustainability, some of which is clearly rhetoric designed to serve commercial interests, as well as disagreements amongst scientists, it is often difficult to decide what is and what is not sustainable. According to this book, new learning arrangements are needed in order to address the challenges facing us, such as the loss of biodiversity or the exploitation of a region’s natural resources. The first part of the book addresses the relationship between science and society, focusing on the participation of scientists in public and political debates and on their involvement with different stakeholders to co-create solutions. In the second part the authors explore how the relationship between “people” and “the planet” can be restored. The final part focuses on the role of education and learning in bringing this all into practice.

Women reclaiming sustainable livelihoods: Spaces lost, spaces gained
W. Harcourt, 2012.
Palgrave Macmillan, New York. 275 pages.

This is the first book in a series on women, development and social change. It claims that “the current development trend towards eco-efficiency has obfuscated inequities in the gender distribution of production/reproduction and consumption work”. The book, with chapters written by women from ten different countries, shows how changing policy narratives have opened up some spaces for women seeking sustainable livelihoods, and closed others. This is done by looking at different cases that show how women engage in the struggle for sustainable livelihoods, and how they deal and negotiate with power structures in their day-to-day lives.

The great food robbery: How corporations control food, grab land and destroy the climate
GRAIN, 2012.
GRAIN, Barcelona. 164 pages.

Although more than enough food is produced to feed the world, more than a billion people continue to suffer from hunger. Drawing on extensive research conducted by GRAIN, this book argues that the crisis in the global food system is the result of the expansion of a corporate-driven system that excessively relies on industrial, large-scale, agriculture. Considering a wide range of issues, such as the climate crisis and land grabbing, the authors look at the strategies and tactics employed by corporations to expand this industrial food system, and how this destroys traditional or local food systems and the environment.

Farmer organisations
There is a variety of resources available on farmer organisations. Practical manuals to support the setup of co-operatives include “Starting a cooperative” (R. Koopmans, 2006), “Project design manual: A step by step tool to support the development of cooperatives and other forms of self-help organisations” (ILO, 2010) and the distance learning CD-ROM “Understanding and supporting rural producer organisations” (FAO, 2006). Other interesting documents include “Producer organisations and market chains: Facilitating trajectories of change in developing countries” (G. Ton, J. Bijman, J. Oorthuizen, 2007), “Dealing with small scale producers (E. Mangnus and B. de Steenhuijsen Piters, 2010) and Alexander Chayanov’s classic, but still highly relevant, “Theory of peasant co-operatives”.

The United Nations proclaimed 2012 as the International Year of Co-operatives; relevant resources and activities can be found on the dedicated website. Readers can also find more and more information on territorial and environmental cooperatives. Interesting papers include “Territorial cooperative networks: New social carriers for endogenous rural development” (Rooij, 2006) and “Peasants, territorial cooperatives and the agrarian question” (J.D. van der Ploeg, 2010).

Information for and about farmer organisations can also be found on the websites of different membership organisations such as the International Federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP) and La Via Campesina. (LvdB)

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Sudan: Associations make the difference

Sudan is the world’s largest producer of gum arabic. Consisting of the dried exudates of Acacia trees, this is an ingredient in many food and pharmaceutical products. Duri

ng recent decades, drought, desertification, civil strife and low prices have led small-scale farmers to fell many Acacia trees, often in order to expand their production of cash and food crops. This has led to worrying levels of deforestation in areas that are already hard-hit by droughts and desertification.

To turn the tide, more than 100 producer associations, with a total membership of more than 10,000 households (of which 25% are women), decided to join a government effort to generate better revenues from gum cultivation in the country’s “gum belt”: Western and Central Sudan. The farmers received technical, managerial and financial training. They worked together to distribute seedlings and jointly purchase water reservoirs, gum stores, tractors and wells.

After four years, their income levels have increased by 65%, and their living conditions improved notably. Reduced income inequality between urban and rural areas is providing a “peace dividend” to the war-affected population of Sudan. The revitalization of the gum arabic sector is also contributing to the much needed reforestation of the country.

More information?

Contact Ibrahim Rahamtalla, at the Sudan Gum Arabic Production & Marketing Project in Khartoum.
E-mail: abualaa_hamad@hotmail.com

Kenya: Facilitating cooperation

Like many rural areas, the Bondo district, in western Kenya, is witnessing a strong urbanisation process. This means a higher demand for farm products, and farmers cannot always respond. Grow Strong, a small NGO working towards food security, initiated the Bondo Food Hub in the !rst part of 2012.

The Hub aims to enhance co-operation by pooling resources and information. Farmers with similar interests form interest groups within the Hub, focusing on, for example,

beekeeping or sesame production. The Hub helps these farmer groups by housing processing equipment, developing market opportunities and assisting with packaging and quality control standards.

The Hub will soon have a space for dryland farming demonstrations and kitchen gardens for the urban population and plans to collect and distribute important traditional seed varieties through community seed banks. Drawing on local traditions of self-help, the Bondo Food Hub is helping farmers work together and co-operate at a time when farming has become riskier than ever. Their objective is to show how, together, farmers can be more productive, earn a decent income, and contribute to the district’s food security and sovereignty.

More information?

Contact Amy Lint at Grow Strong.
E-mail: amy@growstrong.org

India: Community fish culture

In India, freshwater aquaculture in man-made water bodies, such as tanks and ponds, is on the rise. In Malliyabad village, in the state of Karnataka, 33 landless families depend on fishing in a minor irrigation tank in the village.

However, they were being squeezed by middlemen who control fishing rights, !sh harvesting and marketing. These families have responded to these problems by developing and strengthening a community based approach to fish culture and have signed up to the state government’s Jala Samvardhane Yojana Sangha project.

Under this project, fishermen and women form Tank Users Groups (TUG) to obtain long-term fishery leasing rights, as well as to ensure the operation and maintenance of the tanks. Income from fisheries and other revenues (such as water tax or the royalties on fisheries) are deposited in the Tank Development Fund: 50% of the revenue generated goes to the fishermen and women, and 50% to the TUG which operates and maintains the tank.

The organisation also gives fisherfolk access to trainings and to inputs such as fish fingerlings and harvesting nets. Members have also received technical, marketing and legal support. The participation of women as group members is helping develop a more diverse and sustainable production system.

More information?

Contact Rajkumar Pujari of the Jala Samvardhane Yojana Sangha project, Government of Karnataka.
E-mail: dr_rajkumar_p@yahoo.com

The Netherlands: Governing environmental services

In the Dutch province of Friesland, the North Frisian Woodlands (NFW) farmers’ co-operative is unique in its efforts to protect the local landscape. This umbrella organisation provides information and training on natural landscape and biodiversity management to 90% of all the dairy and livestock farmers in the region. It also offers administrative help to its 1,050 members – especially in relation to the government subsidies offered in order to support the ecosystem services that farmers provide: the maintenance of forage space for geese, for example, and of hedgerows between grazing lands that maintain biodiversity in farmlands.

During the past 20 years, NFW has challenged Dutch and European policies and regulations related to landscape management. Under the framework of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Union, NFW convinced the Dutch government of the value of a collective, regionally tailored approach to payments for ecosystem services.

NFW is currently one of the pilot projects under the CAP. Its continuous dialogues with the municipal, provincial and state governments have been a catalyst for change. The proposals for the 2014-2020 CAP follow this example, suggesting that groups of farmers should be eligible to receive payments for the public services provided by their approach to agriculture.

More information?

Contact Ingrid van Huizen at the North Frisian Woodlands co-operative.
E-mail: ivhuizen@noardlikefryskewalden.nl

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According to surveys, 14 percent of the readers of this magazine are farmers. We would like the other 86% to imagine that they are precisely that – farmers in developing countries. Your situation? You make ends meet, but you want more: you want to get ahead. Perhaps you want better roads for bringing your produce to the market; or fiscal legislation that doesn’t squeeze agriculture dry; or a better price for your product. Maybe you want all of the above – or other things that can make life better for you and your family.

All these very different aspirations have one thing in common: you have more chance of making them real if you do not act on your own. Being part of an organisation is the best way to make sure that your interests are not overlooked or ignored.

Ms Mwewa and the Cotton Association of Zambia
 
Elizabeth Florence Mwewa, a cotton farmer in Chivumba (in the Petauke District, in Zambia’s Eastern Province), is one of the many members of both the Cotton Association of Zambia and the Zambia National Farmers’ Union. Looking back, she sees a turning point when,
in 2007, the Extension and Training Officer of the Cotton Association organised and conducted a seed cotton production training which specifically looked at the factors that lead to low yields. “I was one of the participants who joined the course in Nyamphondolo, and this is how I came to know about the Cotton Based Farming System. This is the crop production system that my family has adopted, growing cotton in combination with other carefully selected crops that are beneficial to each other.”

 
Mrs Mwewa has seen higher yields, but also better prices, as these are negotiated by the Cotton Association of Zambia. As a result, her household’s income has significantly improved, and she was therefore able to pay boarding fees for a child between 2007 and 2011, so he could complete his secondary education.
But Mrs Mwewa not only receives benefits; she also passes them on, thanks to the organisational structure of which she is part and parcel. She is now a CAZ Study Circle Organizer in Nyamphondolo, and she has eight functional cotton study circle groups. “I have participated in the hosting of onfarm demonstrations and also in many field days. The extension approach has since changed to study circles which saw me trained as a Study Circle Organiser. Both systems have helped me acquire and continue to acquire knowledge and skills in crop production and marketing, and I am proud to share this with other farmers.”

Speaking for themselves

National farmers’ unions that lobby for their members’ interests and local co-operative societies that are part of the value chain in which farmers work are both membership organisations. These are associations in which the members rule, and through which they speak for themselves.

Agriterra does not look favourably upon the growth of rural NGOs elaborating programmes and projects, making choices and advocating policies on behalf of people they do not represent. It is far more sustainable and authentic to enable organised farmers to think about the problems and how to solve them. Agriterra helps to make this happen.

How? A farmers’ organisation has to know what its members’ concerns are, so that it can “translate” them into coherent policy proposals and economic initiatives. This means that the organisation has to consult its members on a regular basis, have the results documented and systematise them into proposals.

To this end, Agriterra offers a toolbox: the Participatory Generation of Policy Proposals (or PGPP) method. Proposals come forward that are demonstrably produced by membership consultations, and what’s more: they are actually accepted and supported by other stakeholders!

A promising tool

A PGPP workshop organised in November 2011 helped leaders and members of Bolivia’s national farmers’ network, CIOEC, examine a bill already submitted to Parliament, and identify a set of proposals for its approval. Originally drafted in 2003, this bill includes a series of measures to diversify production and support small-scale farmers, providing financial assistance and also setting up a new vice-ministry for family farming.

As a result of the meeting and discussions, CIOEC sent a new proposal to Parliament in August, and is actively working with different political parties to get it approved.

The PGPP approach also looks very promising in Africa’s Great Lakes Region, where nine organisations (from Congo DR, Burundi and Rwanda) participated in a first training in the method in June 2012, in Goma (Congo DR). People were enthusiastic and felt taken seriously. As one of the participants said, “faire quelque chose pour moi sans moi, c’est le faire contre moi”. In other words, nothing about us without us!

This is exactly the principle that Agriterra adheres to. And not just because proposals and ideas improve when they are based on what the direct stakeholders think and want. The farmer in Goma said it clearly: if you don’t consult me, you work against me. Not to be consulted, or not to participate in debates, undermines democracy and sustainable development, because people will not feel really involved. And that participation can only have a sustainable form in associations.

An old example

Travelling through America in the 19th century, Alexis de Tocqueville praised the role of associations. He observed how they enhanced co-operation between individuals to make things happen, and also as schools for building democracy: “In order that men remain civilised or become so, the art of associating must be developed and perfected among them in the same ratio as equality of conditions increases” (De Tocqueville, A., 1835/1840, Democracy in America).

Agriterra works in the spirit of De Tocqueville, sharing his core assumption about the strength of joint forces – the way that ultimately leads to farmers improving their lives because they join an organisation that truly belongs to them and offers them the services they need: their farmers’ association. That is how Ms Elizabeth Florence Mwewa and her colleagues (see below) got ahead.

Jur Schuurman and Ninoska González Herrera

Jur Schuurman works for Agriterra as head of support and quality, the department that combines communications and monitoring and evaluation. E-mail: schuurman@agriterra.org.
Ninoska González Herrera, a Chilean agronomist, works as liaison officer for Agriterra. This is an organisation for international agricultural co-operation founded by the rural people’s organisations in the Netherlands. Agriterra offers peer-to-peer advice and direct financial support to producers’ organisations and co-operatives in developing countries so that they become stronger and more professional. These organisations are indispensable for the promotion of democracy, for a better distribution of income and for the economic development of a country. For more information about Agriterra and the PGPP please visit www.agriterra.org

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