Agri entrepreneurs as a new type of innovators

Interview with Andy Hall, Researcher in the area of Innovation Processes and agriculture. UNU-MERIT Maastricht
AISA workshop, Agricultural Innovation Systems in Africa, Nairobi, 29-31 May 2013.

Andy answers following questions:

1. Are agri-entrepreneurs a new type of innovators? 
2. What is an example of an agri-business service provider?
3. Which role can entrepreneurs play to put research into use?
4. Can entrepreneurs link the value chain to financial actors?
5. Was Research into Use (RIU) over-designed?
6. Why is engaging agricultural Small and Medium Enterprises (agri-SMEs) so challenging?
7. Are equity funds an opportunity to engage them?

Transcript:

Are agri-entrepreneurs a new type of innovators?

Agri-entrepreneurs seem to be a new category of innovators which we start to see in the rural landscape in Sub Saharan Africa and in Asia. And what is interesting about them: they quite often are both interested in making money as entrepreneurs but they are also recognizing the market of poor people to which they sell products to or buy products from. One of the interesting things to me is that the entrepreneurs of this sort have started to martial a different sets of ideas to come up with innovations which seem to have this property to be relevant for development as well as for an entrepreneur to make money. Their resistance as a kind of pervasive force in the rural areas and the rural sector suggests that they may be a useful focus for capacity building into the future, looking at how research can be better linked to them, looking at how policy could better respond to their needs and how the institutional environment around markets could help the development of this sort of sector.

What is an example of an agri-business service provider?

Technoserve has a very long story in this in Africa but this bring us to the great question whether you are born an entrepreneur or can you train then? My sense is that they probably emerge automatically in a self organising way. Some of the agri-entrepreneurs that we have been seen are actually people who have taken a conventional career path. Maybe they have gone into IT and worked in the corporate sector and then come back and actually say "that's not for me and I want a business which is both socially responsible but also makes me a living.

Which role can entrepreneurs play to put research into use?

I think the most important role they have in bringing research into use is: what are entrepreneurs good at? They are good at  identifying opportunities -  opportunities that are often driven by the market. But entrepreneurs are also good in marshaling ideas and people. So they are in a sense performing - what is now called - the brokering role: putting ideas, resources and people together: to make that innovation actually happen.

Can entrepreneurs link the value chain to financial actors?

I don't know too much about that but I think that part of marshaling people and resources is there ability to tap into resources of financing to help them do the things they are doing . But as I said I don't know many details about this.

Was Research into Use (RIU) over-designed?

RIU is of course a very long story. But a number of things come out of that. One is that the distinction between research and into use - what we call innovation - is a false distinction. What is actually required is research funds being made available to development initiatives so they can trouble shoot and support the innovation process. the other thing that also came out - what kind of relate to the agri-enterprise issues we just talked about - is an increasing blur between development and an enterprise. Historically this has been seen as contradictory. But there is clearly a generation of entrepreneurs emerging which  who have developmental interest. And that's an opportunity for making a better use of agricultural research in development.

Why is engaging agricultural Small and Medium Enterprises (agri-SMEs) so challenging?

I think it continues to be a challenge often quite difficult to identify them. The usual channel to support them through funding mechanisms: they are not familiar with that sort of approach. those funds are often hogged by the usual suspects. Much more effort is needed to understand where they sit in the landscape, what sort of capacity support can be brought to bare to help them access funds, make partnership and this sort of connectivity work that is required around innovation.

Are equity funds an opportunity to engage them?

Equity funds may well be an opportunity to engage them but there is possibly further work required to understand what the investment opportunities are in the rural sector and investment opportunities associated with these sorts of entrepreneurs. But I don't see any reason why there should not be opportunities for equity funds.

Cadre permanent de concertation entre les op et la recherche (CROP) : perspective paysanne

18-20 juin 2013. Freetown, Liberia. L’objectif général de cet atelier est le renforcement du cadre de concertation entre les organisations de producteurs et la recherche en vue de la réalisation des objectifs assignés a la recherche dans le cadre de l’ECOWAP.

Les objectifs spécifiques de l’atelier sont de :

• améliorer le dialogue entre les OP et la recherche; 
• Mettre en place un processus permettant un mécanisme de coopération entre la recherche et les OP.

L’atelier est organisé autour de trois axes :

1. la compréhension commune du rôle assigné par les Communautés régionales a la recherche dans le cadre des politiques agricoles: (a) bien comprendre le rôle que les acteurs de la politique agricole ont assigné a la recherche et (b) comment ils tentent s’organiser pour le mettre en œuvre 
2. les cadres de concertation au niveau régional et national : (a) le rôle du producteurs, (b) revisiter les types de cadre de concertation existants dans la région, (c) le type de concertation entre les CGIAR, les CGIAR et les NARS ainsi qu’entre les NARS, (d) recenser les cadres de concertations innovants.
3. la proposition d’une feuille de route cadre de concertation entre les OP et la recherche: une proposition de feuille de route pour le renforcement de la coopération entre les OP et la recherche.

Interview: 
Khalilou Sylla, Secrétaire Exécutif du ROPPA donne ces commentaires sur le CADRE PERMANENT entre les OP et la Recherche. 18-20 JUIN 2013 à FREETOWN (interviewé lors de la Table Ronde organise par la Commission Européenne à Bruxelles : Global Alliance for Resilience Initiative (AGIR) – Sahel – West Africa.


Extait: (a part de 3 min 27")
Cette réunion est très importante pour nous. C’est pour affirmer deux choses : La première chose est que nous n’avons pas de mécanisme clair qui nous permette de vraiment impliquer les producteurs dans le processus d’identification des priorités. La région de l’Afrique de l’Ouest et les structures qui impliquent les chercheurs ont cru qu’il suffisait d’impliquer les producteurs dans leurs conseils d’administration. Ce n’est pas cela qu’il faut.

Il faut un mécanisme qui permettent aux producteurs de dire : voilà mes besoins, que ces besoins peuvent être pris en charge et que le producteur puisse évaluer ce qu’on lui a donné ou que d’autres acteurs puissent évaluer où est l’efficacité de cette recherche ? Comme pour le secteur prive nous voulons dire au chercheurs : nous sommes dans un cadre ou nous devons travailler ensemble. L’idée de notre travail n’est pas compliquée.

Les choses clés qui nous intéressent sont de dire :

1. voici les besoins des producteurs , 
2. qu’est-ce que vous avez comme résultat de recherche pour pouvoir répondre à ces besoins, 
3. pour les besoins pour lesquels vous n’avez pas de moyens ou résultats : c’est au producteurs d’aller chercher les ressources pour donner au chercheurs en demandant : faites cette recherche pour nous. 

Cela change tout. Ce mécanisme met le producteur au centre de la recherche. Ce n’est pas un producteur qui est dans un conseil d’administration et qui ne peut rien changer car il est au milieu de 50 chercheurs et on lui demande de les convaincre !

AfricaRice : Improving Food Security Information in Africa

12 June 2013. A new 3-year project has been launched with financial and technical support from Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) to improve the food security information system in Africa through the generation of quality rice data and information.

This will add value to the existing endeavors undertaken so far towards the goal of improving the availability and reliability of rice statistics in support of the objective of the CARD initiative.

The project will consist mainly of three main activities relating to: 1) the development of a survey methodology to be used to conduct rice surveys in the participating countries, 2) NARS capacity building to acquire the required skills to implement rice surveys using the method that will be introduced by the project, and 3) conduct surveys in selected countries.

For more information, visit www.AfricaRice.org

Speakers in the video (in order of appearance) :

• Dr. Kenji Kamikura, Senior Statistician, Statistics Department, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and. Fisheries of Japan
• Dr. Elisha Martine Mkandya, Economist, Tanzania Ilonga Agricultural Research Institute, Tanzania
• Dr. Vivian E. Ojehomon, Head of Planning/Agric. Economist, National Cereals Research Institute (NCRI), Nigeria. 
• Dr. Ali Touré, Coordinator, IFAD Project for WCA, AfricaRice, Benin

Announcement: East African regional agribusiness expos

14th-15th June 2013. Arusha. Seliani Agricultural Research Institute (SARI). The Eastern Africa Grain Council (EAGC) in collaboration with other stakeholders has organised a two-day EAGC Agribusiness Expo 2013. 

The Agribusiness Expo is one of its kind and is aimed at bringing together all players in the agribusiness industry to exhibit their wares and services. It serves as a one-stop shop that creates a face-to-face encounter between the service providers and the users/buyers- of the farming community.

The theme for this year’s expo was “The Future of Agribusiness: Pathways to Commercialisation”. Under the theme, the expo targeted players in the agro-industry, including agro dealers, farm implement traders, food processors, players in the financial sector including banks, insurance companies and research institutions, among others.

EAGC PARTNERS

Background:

Eastern Africa Grain Council is a member of the organization for the grain value chain in the eastern

Africa region bringing together grain producers, traders, processors and other stakeholders with an objective of finding solutions to common problems and challenges affecting the sector and in particular to promote structured trading systems as a way of improving regional grain trade by harmonization of standards, grades, rules of trade and advocating for an enabling environment free of trade barriers such as tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade.

EAGC is also a member of the East Africa Business Council (EABC) and has offices in Tanzania, Uganda and a regional head office in Kenya.

The Agri-business Expo is one of the various platforms that EAGC has developed for the members and stakeholders to engage, network, develop business linkages and exchange ideas so as to learn from each other as we all pursue the mandate and objectives of the Council.

Forthcoming:

Uganda: 28-29 June 2013.

Kenya: 1-2 August 2013

TICAD: Improving Agriculture

1 to 3 June, 2013. Yokohama, Japan. — African and Japanese leaders adopted a declaration to promote foreign investment in Africa.

Japan co-hosted the conference, attended by the leaders from about 50 African nations. Delegates discussed trade, investment and security, among other issues.

The Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the talks had given rise to a determination among participating nations to move forward hand in hand. He said there was renewed hope for growth in Africa.

The Yokohama Declaration calls for cooperation to achieve accelerated growth, sustainable development and a reduction of poverty in Africa. It pledges to improve legal systems and infrastructure to encourage private foreign investment. The declaration also calls for an increase in vocational training to provide the skills needed for jobs.

It ensures a commitment to advanced agricultural technologies to boost food production. The leaders adopted an action plan to meet the declaration's goals. The plan sets a target of 6-percent growth for Africa's agricultural sector and a doubling of its rice production by 2018. The declaration appreciates the Government of Japan for the contribution of $550 USD million in support of humanitarian assistance in Africa.

Published on 30 May 2013

Published on 2 Jun 2013. Relations between Japan and Africa began at the Tokyo International Conference on African Development in 1993. Japan made commitments to increase the share and volume of its aid to Africa. Since then, TICAD has supported a wide range of activities to enhance peace, good governance, sustainable development, and security in Africa. CCTV's Carol Oyola takes a look at relations between Japan and Africa and how Africa can drive its relationship with other countries.

Identifying local innovations in pastoral areas in Marsabit County, Kenya

Identifying local innovations in pastoral areas in Marsabit County, Kenya 

by Brigitte Kaufmann, William Nelson, Raphael Gudere, Vince Canger, David Golicha, Markus Frank, Hassan Roba, Okeyo Mwai and Christian Hülsebusch German
Institute for Tropical and Subtropical Agriculture (DITSL) at the Faculty of Organic Agricultural Sciences of the University of Kassel
funded by GIZ on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
2012, 36 pages 

This manual provides insight into the methods used and the experiences gained while identifying local innovations in pastoral areas in northern Kenya. It targets a wider audience, ranging from multipliers working with pastoral communities, development professionals, and decision makers to students and academic scholars focusing on the field of innovations and their generation and diffusion.

It is intended as a source book for both, people interested in the topic of “local innovations in pastoral areas and their identification and documentation” and for those interested in the specific local innovations that were identified in Marsabit County as such.

The authors would like to promote the identification of local innovations as one possible bottom-up strategy to learn about and to spread innovations in pastoral areas. Many top-down approaches that aimed at introducing innovations from outside have failed, because they have underestimated the context-specificity of pastoral production.

The authors start out from the point of view that any innovation needs to fit into the respective local production processes, which are constrained by a combination of particular and specific environmental, socio-cultural and economic conditions.

Related:

Mutual learning of livestock keepers and scientists for adaptation to climate change in pastoral areas (Small grant founded by BMZ) Project partners: German Institute for Tropical and Subtropical Agriculture (DITSL), Witzenhausen, Germany (PD Dr. B. Kaufmann, Dr. C. Hülsebusch) Kenya agricultural research Institute (KARI), Nairobi, Kenya (Dr. S. Kuria) International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Nairobi, Kenya (Dr. O. Mwai) Project duration: April 2010 to December 2012, total budget: 60 000 Euro Background: With increasing climate variability livestock keeper strategies to adapt to variations become of predominant importance. Since pastoral production systems are complex and characterized by a high temporal and spatial variability, local innovations are supposed to be better adapted to the prevailing conditions. Knowledge about local innovations in pastoral livestock management is however scarce. In recent years, farmer to farmer exchange has been identified as a promising approach to facilitate learning of farmers to improve their production and livelihood systems. Purpose: The purpose of the project is to enhance adaptation to climate variability through effective knowledge sharing processes in vulnerable ecosystems of the arid and semi arid lands (ASALs) of Kenya. This involves development and adaptation of methods that render mutual learning between livestock keepers and scientist more effective. Outputs: Methodology of livestock keepers to livestock keepers’ knowledge sharing, relevant to buffering against climate change in pastoral production systems adapted. Effective tools for documentation, reflection and scientific use of the knowledge exchange process developed. Decision making process of pastoralists about adoption of innovations analysed using cybernetic knowledge analysis. Methods published and shared with stakeholders of Non Governmental Organisations (NGO’s) and research institutions. Methodology: The focus of the project lies on enhancing livestock keepers and scientists learning on buffering strategies to climate variability based on knowledge generated during farmer-interactive extension. Facilitation of information exchange tools will be borrowed from both Participatory Learning and Action Research and systemic management. Capturing and sharing the knowledge gained thus requires reflection after the exchange sessions. Reflection will therefore be introduced as a systematic component into the livestock keepers’ exchange methodology. Results of the reflection process will enable: livestock keepers to discuss and share the knowledge they gained in the exchange process, also for better understanding and internalization of adaptive strategies, scientists to generate data to get in-depth understanding of the perspective of the livestock keepers, including their rules that they base their actions on. Preliminary results: During five months field work in Marsabit District finally five local innovations were documented and pastoralist to pastoralist exchange meetings were organised to discuss their feasibility. One of them was the formation of pastoral marketing groups which finally led to the foundation of a biweekly market in Ilaut (see pictures). Ilaut market: Livestock keeper groups jointly organised a biweekly livestock market in Ilaut   Fieldwork was conducted by: William Nelson              Vince Canger                David Golicha               Raphael Gudere William Nelson Idenfication of local innovations in Marsabit county Vince Canger MSc Study: Pastoralists' evaluation of local innovations: Analysis of pastoralist-to-pastoralist exchange sessions to determine adoption factors David Golicha Pastoralist to pastoralist exchange sessions

IFC Sustainable Agribusiness Conference 2013

June 4-6, 2013. IFC’s Sustainable Business Advisory in Africa program organized a conference on Sustainable Agribusiness in Nairobi.

The event brought together the private sector, donors, civil society, and financial institutions to discuss how to support smallholder farmers and address climate change in Africa. Food security was also one of the main themes discussed at the conference, which included panels on how to invest in sustainable supply chains in Africa.

There was a presentation on IFC Investment and Advisory Innovations

• Business Brief for Sustainable Agribusiness in Africa
• Investment facilities and GAFSP
• Handbook on Supply Chain Management
• Handbook on Smallholder Engagement

Conference Agenda »

IFC also presented This is Africa, a publication of the Financial Times, its media partner at the event.

Growing interest in African agriculture bodes well for the continent's development and attention is turning to consolidation and growth.

How can multinational companies forge close relations to Africa's smallholder farmers?
What role can technology play in boosting productivity? How can financing be unleashed to support growth?

With comment and insight from leading agriculture and food retail companies, including Unilever, Starbucks and General Mills, This Is Africa - in association with IFC - explores the new era in agricultural development.

Interview and comments from:

• Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute, Columbia University
• Ken Powell, Chief Executive Office, General Mills
• Mohit Arora, Director of Agriculture, Standard Bank Africa
• James Mwai, Acting Executive Director, Fairtrade Africa
• Ram Bhavnani, former Agriculture Minister, Ghana

To download the report click on the link: African agriculture report.pdf  3.12 MB

At the launch of the African agribusiness special report, 

This Is Africa's senior reporter, Adam Green, discusses the report's central themes.

For the launch of This Is Africa's agribusiness special report this June, Adam Green speaks 

to Usha Rao-Monari, director of the Sustainable Business Advisory department

Background:
IFC works with small businesses, micro- and smallholder farmers, banks, large companies, and others to provide business management training that can help enable small businesses to grow, find markets, and access bank financing. Our work enables farmers to employ sustainable farming methods, and helps small businesses become bankable and contribute to economic growth, key IFC development goals.

IFC uses two different platforms to reach farmers, small businesses, and entrepreneurs who could benefit from business management training: Business Edge, classroom-based business workshops, and SME Toolkit, free online tools, templates, how-to articles, and training to help small businesses grow.

Related: 
On December 4-5, 2012, IFC’s Farmer and SME Training team (FAST) hosted a roundtable event to discuss private sector strategies to expand supply chains by engaging with smallholder farmers. The event drew participation from global corporations and service providers, including ABN-Amro, Bayer, ECOM, Geotraceability, Grow Cocoa, Standard Bank, Starbucks, Syngenta, UTZ, and Walmart. The discussions highlighted solutions for conveying training, finance, and inputs to smallholder farmers. A diverse gathering of experienced practitioners, supply chain managers, and donor representatives identified three emerging themes at the forefront of the sector’s development.

The event confirmed the private sector’s commitment to strengthening sustainable supply chains of smallholder farmers, and it produced enthusiastic interest in developing partnerships among attendees. FAST has incorporated the insights from this event into a handbook of good practices for firms working with smallholder farmers. IFC expects to launch the handbook in May 2013.

See full proceedings of the event & the agenda and list of participants
Related: 

Stakeholder Engagement: A Good Practice Handbook for Companies Doing Business in Emerging Markets201 pages | © May 2007 IFC

This handbook endeavors to provide a comprehensive overview of good practice in stakeholder engagement, with a dedicated focus on stakeholder groups that are "external" to the core operation of the business, such as affected communities, local government authorities, non-governmental and other civil society organizations, local institutions and other interested or affected parties.

The handbook is divided into two parts: Part One contains they key concepts and principles of stakeholder engagement, the practices that are known to work, and the tools to support the delivery of effective stakeholder engagement. Part Two shows how these principles, practices and tools fit with the different phases of the project cycle, from initial concept, through construction and operations, to divestment and/or decommissioning.

Agribusiness Finance Program
Credit Bureau Program
IFC’s Africa Credit Bureau Program provides advisory services to central banks, public and private banks, bankers associations, other lenders and credit providers, and consumers to help build efficient and effective credit information sharing or reporting systems. The program is currently active in Ghana, Mozambique, and Tanzania. To read a feature story about the program, click here

Global Index Insurance Facility (GIIF) Program 
The GIIF Program is helping expand access to weather insurance for farmers and livestock herders, who often struggle to obtain coverage for their crops or animals. Backed by the European Union and Netherlands, the facility will work in a number of emerging markets, with an initial focus on Sub-Saharan Africa. To read a feature story on GIIF, click here

Standing Wealth. Pastoralist Livestock Production and Local Livelihood in Sudan

Krätli S., Dirani O.H. El, Young H. 2013. Standing Wealth. Pastoralist Livestock Production and Local Livelihood in Sudan, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Feinstein International Centre, Tufts University, Nairobi

May 2013, Khartoum - This study takes a fresh look at what makes livestock production - the backbone of Sudanese agriculture - operate successfully.

Animal production in the predominantly pastoral arid and semi-arid regions represents the most important part of agricultural Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Sudan, yet the programmes for modernizing agriculture invest comparatively little in pastoral systems. 

As pastoral systems use the environment in a fundamentally different way than globalized intensive agriculture – working with environmental variability rather than against it – genuine modernization can only happen by taking this difference into account. Rather than importing off-the-shelf ‘modernity’ that ignores local systems of production, efforts to modernize a largely pastoral livestock sector should engage with this reality, mobilizing scientific research and technological development, in a dialogue 

with primary producers, in order to generate innovative solutions specific to the logic of production in pastoral systems. 

An NGO with a head for business

Commercial agribusiness for sustainable horticulture (CASH)

Country Director at ASNAPP Zambia, Dr. Langenhoven

2 JUNE 2012. Community farming projects in Africa have a much greater chance of making a real difference to the lives of rural farmers when there is a strong private sector company providing a ready market for the produce..

Many farming development projects in Africa have focussed on assisting farmers to increase yields to ensure that there is enough food on the table. While these programmes have addressed rural food security, they have failed to provide farmers with new markets to sell their surplus produce. After receiving the sound technical advice from extension workers and NGOs, many farmers had to watch helplessly whilst their resultant increased production got rotten for lack of markets.

Agribusiness in Sustainable Natural African Plant Products (ASNAPP), an NGO with offices in a number of countries across the continent, however, subscribes to a "market-first" approach, developing projects based on a sound business case that meets the needs of the intended market.

"We take a market-first, science-based approach to project development," says Dr Petrus Langenhoven, agronomist and greenhouse specialist at ASNAPP. "The problem with many NGOs is that they don't look at projects from a business point of view."

ASNAPP's projects are supplying well-known private sector players such as Freshmark, a subsidiary of pan-African supermarket group Shoprite and responsible for the retailer's fruit and vegetable procurement and distribution. Outside South Africa, Shoprite has a presence in 15 other countries on the continent. Freshmark also supplies most of these outlets.

La collaboration du ROPPA avec le prive et la recherche

13 juin 2013. Khalilou Sylla, Secrétaire Exécutif du ROPPA donne ces commentaires sur deux évènements que le ROPPA prépare : (interviewé lors de la Table Ronde organise par la Commission Européenne à Bruxelles : Global Alliance for Resilience Initiative (AGIR) – Sahel – West Africa.

• le FORUM DES AFFAIRES du ROPPA pour discuter de l’environnement des affaires et faire du Business TO Business. 29 – 31 OCTOBRE 2013 à ABIDJAN 
• un CADRE PERMANENT entre les OP et la Recherche pour mieux prendre en compte les besoins des OP, améliorer le taux d’adoption et faire du plaidoyer pour le financement des projets conjoints OP-Recherche. 18-20 JUIN 2013 à FREETOWN

Transcript:

Le FORUM DES AFFAIRES du ROPPA. 29 – 31 OCTOBRE 2013 à ABIDJAN

Le Forum des Affaires du ROPPA (Abidjan, 29 Octobre – 31 Octobre 2013) est une affirmation d’une vision que le ROPPA a depuis longtemps et qui a été mal compris.

Le ROPPA a toujours voulu travailler avec le secteur privé car elle considère qu’elle est lui-même membre du secteur privé. Mais il avait mis des conditions qui ont été mal interprétées par les uns et les autres, heureusement pas par tout le monde. Le fait que les états veulent donner la priorité unilatéralement a un certain secteur privé n’était pas la meilleure façon de faire.

Objectifs du Forum :

1. Le ROPPA est secteur prive mais veut un respect des certaines valeurs mutuelles. Nous voulons. Le ROPPA a certaines valeurs ainsi que le secteur privé. Qui n’en a pas ? tout le monde a ses valeurs donc nous devons respecter les valeurs communes. Nous voulons travailler avec le secteur prive avec un certain nombre d’arrangements institutionnelles.
2. B to B : Business to business : faire en somme que nos producteurs qui ont la capacité de faire – car quand on parle des petits producteurs, il y a des producteurs a plusieurs échelles. Il y a des producteurs qui sont capables de produire de la bonne qualité en quantité suffisante. Ces producteurs-là, vont être sélectionnés par pays sur la base d’une sélection rigoureuse et sur la base aussi d’un matching et en regardant de l’autre cote : quels sont les commerçants, certains prives de l’Afrique de l’Ouest ou d’ailleurs qui veulent travailler avec les petits producteurs, pour que nous puissions faire du B to B, qu’ils puissent faire des rendez-vous, qu’ils puissent se parler, qu’ils puissent comprendre ce milieu et surtout signer un MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) ou en tout cas pouvoir faire des affaires. Il y a l’accompagnement qu’il faut mettre en place, former ces paysans avant le B to B pour qu’ils puissent être capables de négocier avec les autres.
3. Autre élément important du Forum qui se déroulera du 29 Octobre au 31 Octobre est un comité régional qui réunira tous les capitaines d’industrie de l’Afrique de l’Ouest et les représentants du ROPPA et la CEDEAO dans une discussion – qui a déjà commencé dans un petit groupe a Dakar en avril passe – et qui va continuer à Abidjan. Dans la deuxième réunion de préparation du Forum des Affaires, les producteurs diront ceux qui sont capables de faire ce forum et ceux qui sont intéressés. C’est donc un partenariat et nous avons un petit comité qui travaille ensemble. Nous avons les partenaires pour nous appuyer : le CTA le fait déjà, l’Union Européenne, la Coopération Suisse. Tous les partenaires : agriculteurs ou partenaires techniques sont appelle a rentrer dans cette dynamique pour faire en sorte que les petits producteurs de l’Afrique de l’ouest, notamment ceux du ROPPA puissent faire du B to B et réaffirmer leur appartenance pleine et entière au secteur privé. 

CADRE PERMANENT entre les OP et la Recherche. 18-20 JUIN 2013 à FREETOWN

Cette réunion est très importante pour nous. C’est pour affirmer deux choses :

1. La première chose est que nous n’avons pas de mécanisme clair qui nous permette de vraiment impliquer les producteurs dans le processus d’identification des priorités. La région de l’Afrique de l’Ouest et les structures qui impliquent les chercheurs ont cru qu’il suffisait d’impliquer les producteurs dans leurs conseils d’administration. Ce n’est pas cela qu’il faut. Il faut un mécanisme qui permettent aux producteurs de dire : voilà mes besoins, que ces besoins peuvent être pris en charge et que le producteur puisse évaluer ce qu’on lui a donné ou que d’autres acteurs puissent évaluer où est l’efficacité de cette recherche ?
2. Comme pour le secteur prive nous voulons dire au chercheurs : nous sommes dans un cadre ou nous devons travailler ensemble. L’idée de notre travail n’est pas compliquée. Les choses clés qui nous intéressent sont de dire : (a) voici les besoins des producteurs , (b) qu’est-ce que vous avez comme résultat de recherche pour pouvoir répondre à ces besoins, (c) pour les besoins pour lesquels vous n’avez pas de moyens ou résultats : c’est au producteurs d’aller chercher les ressources pour donner au chercheurs en demandant : faites cette recherche pour nous. Cela change tout. Ce mécanisme met le producteur au centre de la recherche. Ce n’est pas un producteur qui est dans un conseil d’administration et qui ne peut rien changer car il est au milieu de 50 chercheurs et on lui demande de les convaincre !

Roundtable Global Alliance for Resilience Initiative – Sahel – West Africa

13 juin 2013. European Commission, Brussels. Global Alliance for Resilience Initiative (AGIR) – Sahel – West Africa Roundtable on sustainable agriculture as a means of increasing resilience: the vision of West-African farmers. 

This roundtable is part of a process initiated in December 2012 that will lead to the definition of concrete actions in favour of resilience in the countries involved in the AGIR initiative, of concerted actions driven by the various States, civil society as well as technical and financial partners before the end of 2013.

The Resilience Initiative is an opportunity to accelerate the coordinated implementation of a series of tools essential to sustainable food and nutrition security in West Africa. This also represents an opportunity to include food and nutrition security in the 11th FED (Federation for sustainable development) program currently under negotiation.

More specifically, it must contribute to the debate on a sustainable increase in food production, by collecting the regional main farmer organizations’ positions, within a multi-stakeholder discussion framework aimed at finding sustainable structural solutions to prevent food and nutritional crises. The discussion is based on existing initiatives coordinated by ECOWAS, UEMOA and the technical branch of CILSS.

‌

AGIR Regional Roadmap April 2013 This roadmap provides a Regional Guidance Framework setting forth the overall objectives of the Alliance for Global Resilience (AGIR) - Sahel and West Africa. It will serve as the basis for formulating national resilience priorities (through inclusive dialogue, building on existing and planned policies and programmes). These national priorities will also include operational frameworks for funding, implementation, monitoring and assessment.

What is the AGIR-Sahel Alliance and what are its objectives?

The EU-led Global Alliance for Resilience Initiative (AGIR) was officially launched on 6 December 2012 in Ouagadougou and is shaping up to be a major long term strategy for building resilience in the fragile Sahel region. In response to the chronic food insecurity in the Sahel, the Alliance's objective is to promote greater resilience by creating synergies between the emergency response and long-term development strategies.

The AGIR-Sahel partnership, gathering representatives from over 30 countries, several humanitarian agencies and UN agencies, and organisations such as the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and two regional organisations (ECOWAS and UEMOA), sets out a roadmap to create seasonal social safety nets to strengthen the resilience of the most vulnerable who have too long been the victims of chronic malnutrition. The building of these targeted seasonal safety nets involve cash transfers to the poorest during the lean period, but it also foresee investment in healthcare and social sectors, investment in agriculture, women empowerment, use of private sector expertise, etc.

The AGIR-Sahel will focus on a ‘Zero Hunger’ goal in the next 20 years through 4 strategic pillars:

1. Pillar 1 Restoring and strengthening the livelihoods and social protection of the most vulnerable populations;
2. Pillar 2 Strengthening health and nutrition, e.g. via programs which facilitate access to basic social services;
3. Pillar 3 Increasing food production, the incomes of vulnerable households and their access to food in a sustainable manner;
4. Pillar 4 Strengthening governance in food and nutritional security with, among others, a focus on strengthening early warning and information systems.

Farm Radio “hangs out” with Gates Foundation

10th June 2013. Technology and new media are playing an increasingly active role in society. Hashtags, tweetups, and followers have entered our lives (and the blogosphere) in recent years. Many of us check our news feeds before we brush our teeth in the morning. But what happens when you don’t have access to some of these new technologies? Come “hangout” with FRI’s ED and tech wizard to find out what beeping’s got to do with it.

African seed law regulations

10 June 2012. Civil Society expresses grave concern on African seed law regulation - Undermining farmers rights. A number of civil society statements and submissions expressed grave concern on seed regulation by African regional economic communities which is provoking the ire of civil society concerned about the potential impact of the protocol on small farmers, and the lack of consultation of farmers.

1. SADC - Draft Protocol for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (Plant Breeders’ Rights) Civil society organisations from the SADC region, and around the world have condemned theSADC draft Protocol for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (Plant Breeders’ Rights) as spelling disaster for small farmers and food security in the region. They are calling for urgent consultations with farmers, farmer movements and civil society, conduction of an independent and participatory impact assessments to assess the impact, translation of farmers rights into national law as provided for in the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA), and rejection of UPOV 1991 / UPOV plus that further restrict farmers rights and exceptions to the breeder’s rights.
2. COMESA - Seed trade harmonization regulations
   Civil Society and small holder farmers express grave concern with process and content of the COMESA seed trade harmonization regulations are summarized addressing: 1. Flawed Process, 2. Farmers’ Rights, 3. Cost of Certified Seed, 4. Ownership of germplasm, 5. The burden of implementation of Regulations, 6. Creation of seed monopolies, 7. State Sovereignty,8. Lack of sufficient detail and clarity in legislation / Distinctness, Uniformity, Stability (DUS) Testing, 9. Value for Cultivation or Use (VCU) and Impact on agro-ecology, 10. Post variety release control, 11. Genetically Modified Organisms, 12. Strategic Food Security Crops.
3. Tanzanian civil society statement on farmers’ rights
   The failure to consult Tanzanian farmers on important issues affecting their rights, livelihoods and food security is unacceptable. The implications of acceding to UPOV 1991 are wide-ranging and far-reaching. Tanzanian farmers are largely smallholder and women farmers, who are dependent on the farmer-managed seed systems (informal seed sector) and the customary practices of freely saving, using, exchanging and selling farm-saved seeds and other propagating material. These systems allow farmers to limit the cost of production by preserving independence from the commercial seed sector while the unfettered exchange of seeds/propagating materials contributes to the development of crop diversity and locally appropriate seeds that are more resilient to climate change, pest and disease. Farmer-managed seed systems have therefore contributed greatly to conserving, improving and making available agricultural biodiversity, which is the basis of our food security.

New Generation Rice Varieties Unveiled for Africa

30 May 2013. A new generation of high-performing rice varieties has been launched by the Africa Rice Breeding Task Force under a new brand called “ARICA” – which stands for “Advanced Rice Varieties for Africa.”

The Breeding Task Force comprises international and national rice breeders from 30 African countries and operates as part of the Japan-funded project “Developing the Next Generation of New Rice Varieties for Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia.”

“We are excited to announce the selection of the first five ARICA varieties. The ARICA varieties offer promising opportunities to Africa’s rice sector and can make a difference to the lives of Africa’s rice farmers, who do not have access to new varieties that are better adapted to their growing environment and likely to sell well,” said Dr Papa Seck, Director General of the Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice), which coordinates the Breeding Task Force.

Selection Criteria of ARICA Varieties. The five ARICA varieties were selected based on a rigorous evaluation of elite rice lines across the African continent. All these ARICAs outyielded the most popular check varieties in the trials.

ARICA varieties suitable for rainfed lowland ecology

1. ARICA 1: About 30% higher yield compared to NERICA-L19. ARICA 1 is in the variety release process in Mali.
2. ARICA 2: More than 50% higher yield compared to NERICA-L19. ARICA 2 is in the variety release process in Mali and Nigeria.
3. ARICA 3: About 30% higher yield compared to NERICA-L19, with good grain quality, high milling recovery, low chalkiness, shorter cooking time. ARICA 3 is in the variety release process in Mali and Nigeria.

ARICA varieties suitable for upland ecology

1. ARICA 4: About 15% higher yield compared to NERICA 4. ARICA 4 has just been released in Uganda.
2. ARICA 5: About 15% higher yield compared to NERICA 4. ARICA 5 has just been released in Uganda.

“The ARICA varieties can be considered as the next generation of rice varieties for Africa, after the success of many improved rice varieties – notably the NERICAs, the Sahels, the WABs and the WITAs – developed by AfricaRice and its partners over the last 25 years,” stated AfricaRice Deputy Director General Dr Marco Wopereis.

Describing the ARICA varieties in his blog “Welcoming the ‘ARICAs’: the next generation of rice varieties for Africa,” Dr Wopereis said that unlike the NERICA varieties, the ARICAs are not restricted to interspecific crosses. Any line that shows promise, regardless of its origin can become an ARICA variety as long as the data that are collected are convincing.

Related:

11 June 2012. Rice research investment delivers sixfold return. “We greatly appreciate the evidence of impact provided in this report,” said Carmen Thoennissen, senior advisor, Global Program Food Security,Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). Commissioned by SDC to assess the effectiveness of its international research programs, the report is the first to look at natural resource management technologies on an international scale, encompassing several countries. Titled, “Meta-Impact Assessment of the Irrigated Rice Research Consortium (IRRC),” it shows a sixfold return on SDC investment over 16 years. This is likely a conservative return estimate since only a subset of the farming technologies funded was assessed.

Innovation and Entrepreneurship to enhance graduate studies in agricultural sciences in South Africa

10 June 2013. Brussels. South African Mission to the European Union. A new initiative was presented called the “graduate model for agriculture”, to enhance graduate studies in agricultural sciences in South Africa. The initiative is jointly developed by the South African Department of Science and Technology, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, and the Agricultural Research Council.

The purpose is to build capacity through Masters and PhD students, but with a strong focus on Agri Business. Three academic institutions in South Africa have been identified, based on their already existing expertise in agriculture, their close proximity to critically underdeveloped areas in South Africa and the general community approach of these institutions. These institutions are the Universities of Limpopo, Venda and Fort Hare.

A Centre, for Innovation and Entrepreneurship is proposed, in order to support the above activities and enhance a strong private sector network. The aim of this centre is to integrate private sector activities, research and training in support of innovation and entrepreneurship. This centre will also provide private sector projects.

The main activities of this centre are to:

• Offer undergraduate, graduate and post graduate projects linked to private sector and short courses; 
• Provide administrative support to researchers and companies related to their projects (in the areas of promotion, proposal advising and writing, project management and business management); and 
• Provide technical infrastructures, such as Laboratory facilities 
• Research application and technology transfer to rural communities and farmers in general 
• Extension services (linkages between R&D and extension services) 
• Resource mobilisation for training of farmers, extension personnel, agribusiness facilitators across the value chain 

Through its activities, this centre will contribute:

• To improve students’ knowledge of private sector and to develop an entrepreneurial culture among the students; 
• To provide a quality service to private sector with the main objective of linking to academia; 
• To enhance SMME operations through capacity building; 
• To enrich R&D, teaching and learning activities by providing a better understanding of private sector and farmer needs; and 
• To improve the capacity and competency of the University and student throughput.

Related:

Study on Challenges and Opportunities for Strengthening Tertiary Agricultural Education and Private Sector Collaboration in Africa. 

Marta Zdravkovic (right) talks to ICRAF's 

Head of Capacity Develoment Hassan Mehmood and 

ANAFE's Executive Secretary, Dr Aissetou Yaye (Middle) after 

she made a seminar presentation of her paper at ICRAF campus 

on May 31, 2013

A study was commissioned by The African Network for Agriculture, Agroforestry and Natural Resources Education (ANAFE) to identify the challenges and opportunities for strengthening tertiary agricultural education and private sector collaboration in Africa. The study provides a rich insight in the challenges and opportunities for the UniBRAIN and also other types of university-private sector collaboration. The study was done by Marta Zdravkovic, an MSc student based at the Swedish Agricultural University (SLU).

It argues for effective university private sector linkages: establish proper mechanisms for student placements, enhance the process of curricula improvement, conduct relevant research for industries and formalize of usage of facilities and services by both academic institutions and the private sector. For optimal benefits to be accrued by these parties, they have to restructure their methods of operations and reorient their strategies to fit within a sustainable and mutually beneficial model. This study is not yet publicly available. This study was followed by the development of a Tertiary Education Agribusiness Curriculum Framework.

Towards Sustainable Clusters in Agribusiness through Learning in Entrepreneurship

IFDC, the International Centre for development oriented Research in Agriculture (ICRA) and Base of the Pyramid Innovation Center (BoP Inc.) are promoting sustainable agricultural production and commodity chain development across Africa through the five-year (2012-2016) Toward Sustainable Clusters in Agribusiness through Learning in Entrepreneurship (2SCALE) project. Funded by the Netherlands’ Directorate-General for International Cooperation (DGIS), the project focuses on the development of competitive rural agricultural systems, viable agro-enterprises and the use of public-private partnerships (PPPs).

2SCALE targets eight countries with which the Netherlands has multi-year bilateral development relationships – Benin, Ethiopia,Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Mozambique, South Sudan and Uganda. 2SCALE also targets Nigeria because of its importance to the West African economy and to the development of Benin’s agro-food sector and because of the potential to implement successful PPPs with private sector partners. In addition, ongoing agribusiness cluster activities will continue for approximately two years in Burkina Faso, Niger and Togo.

In each country, 2SCALE staff members work with local, national and international partners to improve rural livelihoods, nutrition and food security. The project’s strategic objective is to develop a portfolio of 500 robust and viable agribusiness clusters (ABCs) and value chains, supplying food to regional, national and local markets as well as to the least fortunate (also known as base-of-the-pyramid [BoP] consumers). 2SCALE will also transfer knowledge on best agricultural practices and leverage the impact of its activities through collaboration with other projects and related activities of the embassies of the Netherlands.

CASE approach (2SCALE)- LR vs door moovon

Background:

Other successful projects have emphasized IFDC’s Competitive Agricultural Systems and Enterprises (CASE) approach and the benefits of PPPs. 2SCALE will expand the CASE and PPP solutions in the nine target countries. IFDC and others have shown that private sector-driven interventions can significantly improve agricultural development in Africa. Using CASE, IFDC proved that participants in an ABC can generate substantial, successful and sustainable smallholder-based agricultural development. In IFDC’s From Thousands to Millions (1000s+) project, nearly 425,000 farmers and over 1,500 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in seven West African countries were linked effectively to markets. Farmers’ agricultural productivity almost doubled, while their incomes increased by 30 percent.

2SCALE will emphasize ‘going to scale’ – increasing the number and size of ABCs, strengthening the role of the private sector contribution in cluster activities and enlarging the impact on food security by tripling the number of smallholder farmers involved. 2SCALE will leverage private sector investments (up to 50 percent of the total project budget) to generate innovations in local, national, regional and BoP markets.

Achievements to date

• The project has taken off with a first workshop from 25 August till 12 September 2012 in Accra, Ghana, on CASE. For ICRA, Toon Defoer and Marie-Jo Dugué were the main facilitators.
• 27/8 to 5/9 2012: Workshop for Cluster Advisors of West and East African 2SCALE countries, including Burkina Faso, Niger and Togo. Cluster assistants of all West African countries also participated, as well as the Dairy Public Private Partnership (PPP) manager (based in Nigeria). The regional IFDC agribusiness coordinators and two ICRA Regional Capacity Strengthening Coordinators also participated.
• 6/9 to 8/9 2012: Workshops for 2SCALE cross-cutting staff of West Africa, including the West Africa Capacity Strengthening Coordinator.
• 28/10 to 4/11 2012: Team building workshop, Nairobi, Kenya. Facilitators: Toon Defoer, Marie-Jo Dugué, and the two ICRA Regional Capacity Strengthening Coordinators
• 28/11 to 5/12: Design & Management of Capacity Strengthening Programmes training for 2SCALE trainers in West Africa, Benin. Facilitators: Toon Defoer, Marie-Jo Dugué, and the two ICRA Regional Capacity Strengthening Coordinators
• 12-15 Feb 2013. Uganda. Training of 2SCALE trainers
• 10 April 2013, Utrecht. Business Meeting. The meeting attracted over 80 participants including Lilianne Ploumen, Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation; members of two ‘topsector’ boards mandated by the Dutch government to stimulate private investment in high-priority sectors of the economy; and a range of private firms, from medium-scale to multi-national.

2SCALE Project Overview (English and French)

IFDC
2Scale is presented in the last volume of the IFDC Report (Quarterly Newsletter): page 17 to 25
Download Volume 38, No 1 (English)

Download Volume 38, No 1 (French)

PAEPARD video interviews
Interview with Dr Arno Maatman (economist, coordinator 2SCALE programme based in Ghana, former ICRA Director) has been involved in interdisciplinary research on food-security policies and farmer strategies in sub-Saharan Africa, with emphasis on risk management, with a long-term tenure with IFDC as team leader of the Agribusiness Development programme. He has worked for over 15 years in West Africa and has ample experience in facilitating multistakeholder platforms. His expertise areas include institutional economics, empowerment and transformational change, competitiveness and value-chain development.

Arno answers following questions:

• How do you accompany an agro-entrepreneur in 2SCALE?
• Do you support individuals or cooperatives & producers' organisations?
• You don't become an entrepreneur but you are born an entrepreneur?
• Is there a danger to support wrong or opportunistic entrepreneurs?

Interview with Toon Dufoer, coordinator Capacity Strengthening activities in 2SCALE.

Toon answers following questions:

• How is 2SCALE organised?
• How can an entrepreneur from Benin, working around soja get a support?
• When is the next 2SCALE call?

Interview with Richard Hawkins, Director ICRA, about 2SCALE.

Richard answers following questions:

• Do we need a new class of service providers?
• What is the rationale of clustering agribusinesses?

Interview with Jane Tum, Regional Capacity Strengthening Coordinator (RCSC) based in Nairobi, Kenya.

Jane answers following questions:

• How does 2SCALE goes about capacity strengthening?
• How much time do you need to upgrade an agricultural entrepreneur?
• What is an agricultural entrepreneur?

Interview with Beatrice A. Obara Regional Access to Finance Specialist, IFDC - East & Southern Africa Division, Icipe campus - Kasarani Nairobi.

Beatrice answers following questions:

• What is important to know in the livestock value chain from a financial perspective? 
• What means understanding quantity and quality? 
• At the level of slaughter houses what financial products are available? 
• Do we need research in the meat value chain?

 

Recent IFDC agribusiness support projects

Accelerating Agribusiness in Africa – Bridge (AAA-Bridge), 2011-2012

• The AAA-Bridge project was an extension of Strategic Alliance for Agricultural Development in Africa (SAADA-B) activities. 
• It was funded by the Netherlands' Directorate-General for International Cooperation (DGIS)
• The objective of AAA-Bridge was to expand IFDC activities and best practices developed in West Africa, such as the Competitive Agricultural Systems and Enterprises (CASE) solution, Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM), fertilizer deep placement (FDP), fertilizer resource assessments and market information systems (MIS), into other regions of Africa. 
• Specifically, this project expansion was designed to replicate the CASE approach and other aspects of the IFDC agribusiness model in select countries of eastern and southern Africa.

Livelihoods and Enterprises for Agricultural Development (LEAD), 2008-2013 (IFDC support: 2008-2010)

• LEAD helped to raise rural agricultural productivity and incomes for smallholder farmers in Uganda, providing support to targeted smallholders who grow food and cash crops. Utilizing the value chain approach to agricultural development, the project improves productivity through training and access to quality agro-inputs and increases trade capacity and market competitiveness by building better market linkages. IFDC provided technical assistance to the LEAD project from 2008 to 2010.
• LEAD was the principal vehicle of USAID for transforming Uganda’s agricultural sector and improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers. In line with Feed the Future(FtF) activities of USAID-Uganda, USAID-LEAD supported the Mission’s aim of assisting the Government of Uganda (GoU) reach certain objectives under its Development Strategy and Investment Plan (DSIP) and Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP). 

LEAD Programs

Coffee Value Chain

In Uganda, the majority of Robusta coffee farmers sell dried coffee cherries (kiboko), which traders then hull to extract the green beans to be sold through to graders and exporters. For the sale of green beans, the coffee industry has well developed quality parameters and pricing strategies that reward better quality and penalize for high moisture, foreign matter and presence of black and other...

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Maize & Beans Value Chain

Unlike the coffee value chain, there is much less private sector-led investment in the maize and beans value chain. For one reason, margins for all businesses are significantly lower compared with coffee. To be profitable, businesses need to produce, trade, or process much larger volumes. One reason for low margins is that Ugandan maize is generally not of top quality due to poor post-harvest...

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Inputs Value Chain

The value chain of inputs to the agricultural sector, namely for seeds and agro-chemicals, is strongest at the level of import of agro-chemicals and production and import of seed and weakest at the retail of inputs to farmers. Large importers of agro-chemicals and seed companies routinely promote their products, especially new items or seed varieties. These companies often conduct field...

Related:
Experiences from some of the USAID LEAD agribusiness partners in maize, coffee and agro-inputs.

• On April 23 and 24, 2013, nearly 300 value chain actors that included farmers, traders, bank officials, the media, as well as local government officials met in Iganga and Mbale districts respectively to share experiences and build strong partnerships. This was during the 4th regional close out events organized by USAID LEAD as part of its overall exit strategy. The participants hailed from eight eastern Ugandan districts of Sironko, Kapchorwa, Tororo, Mbale, Iganga, Kamuli, Bugiri and Jinja.
• On May 23, 2013, over 150 maize, coffee and inputs value-chain stakeholders from Rubirizi, Mitooma, Bushenyi, Buhweju, Sheema, Ibanda and Kamwenge districts attended the last of the six USAID LEAD regional showcasing event in Bushenyi.