Good point Will. There are around 500 million smallholder farmers in the world and they produce up to 80% of the food consumed in Africa and Asia. Any policies aimed at getting the agriculture sector to truly flourish needs to put SHFs at its centre - this involves targeted and specific policy and budget support for smallholders, active consultation with farmer and producer organisations and an understanding of the local context (rather than a one-size fits all approach).
Thanks Giulia. We have been actively participating in CFS consultation around RAI and with our partners FAO, IFAO, UNCTAD have committed to trying to generate emperical knowledge around these important topics. Between us we have agreed on a program of knowledge generation, feeding that into the CFS (and other) consultations and moving on to capacity building and support for the outcome of the CFS process. Obviously we are fully aware of the HLPE report on Smallholder investment but also there are a raft of other extremely interesting studies coming through about this important issue - such as Thomas Ridden's focus on (The Quiet Revolution in Agriculture) which looks at the cutting edge of commercialization from traditional farms - which challenges many of our preconceptions about farming and the new supply chains emerging particularly within indegenous agribusinesses, use of telephone communications etc. delivering food into the urban markets, Steven Wiggins from ODI's Leaping and Learning report, Bruno Losch's report on Rural Transformation and Late Developing Countries, Oxfams'/IIED report Tipping the Balance as well as our own analysis. Many common themes emerge. Additionally the BBA is at a very early stage and it will adapt and change as we learn in the field and as circumstances change.
A number of people have picked up on the distinctive needs of smallholders versus commercial farmers. That's the focus on our second question:
Q2: What needs do smallholders and larger agribusinesses share, and where do those needs diverge?
It is a really important issue and a key focus of our discussions with the BBA team so far. Our framework looked at the 'foundations' - things that all businesses need, such as good rural infrastructure, public services and investment climate - and pillars - the areas that are specific to smallholders, such as access to the right inputs, credit, research and extension services tailored to their needs (which are very different to bigger businesses). Producer organisations/co-ops are also very important.
Most smallholders are women - so a key crosscutting issue has to be gender. Climate change is a massive threat but agriculture is also key to reducing emissions - so we feel sustainability needs to be mainstreamed throughout the BBA alongside gender.
It would be good to see this big question prefaced with two important words: "Who decides what kind of policies..."
This is related to my point earlier about BBA and process. Process can sound dull or unimpotant but when you have such complexity and differences in a sector like agriculture it is vital because a one-size-fits-all approach won't work.
Sarah, I cannot agree with you any more that the active involvement of the vulnerable groups - SHFs, especially women farmers is key to achieve a positive environment to doing business in agriculture in any of the SSA countries.
Thanks Georgina. Just at this start up phase having gone through a process of consultation, the next steps are really to test the questionnaires, the information gathering methodology in the first four pilot countries. Doing this work is actually very difficult and so we have to get the basics right. We are also swamped by the number of potential questions that we can pursue so we have to be selective. And I confidently expect that the instruments we have now will go through multiple changes and will be a very different animal in 10-15 years time when these kind of intiatives really start to gain traction.
But specifically we are trying to maintain a balance between the formal and informal seed sectors and making sure that there is a process by which informal seed delivery systems can become more professional, more organized, and acknowledged as an important entry point for capacity building etc.
Secondly on a broader scale, typically those countries that seem to punch above their weight agriculturally often have an ongoing mechanism of interaction between the public sector, private sector and the productive sector - enabling policies to be finer tuned and aligned with ground realities, commercial opportunities and the needs of farmers and agribusinesses (of all scales).
For anyone wanting more background on this topic, check out our blog series, curated by Claire Hickson, Managing Director of Trio Policy:
HI Robin - did you see Grahame's reply to Giulia above?
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Thanks Giulia. We have been actively participating in CFS consultation around RAI and with our partners FAO, IFAO, UNCTAD have committed to trying to generate emperical knowledge around these important topics. Between us we have agreed on a program of knowledge generation, feeding that into the CFS (and other) consultations and moving on to capacity building and support for the outcome of the CFS process. Obviously we are fully aware of the HLPE report on Smallholder investment but also there are a raft of other extremely interesting studies coming through about this important issue - such as Thomas Ridden's focus on (The Quiet Revolution in Agriculture) which looks at the cutting edge of commercialization from traditional farms - which challenges many of our preconceptions about farming and the new supply chains emerging particularly within indegenous agribusinesses, use of telephone communications etc. delivering food into the urban markets, Steven Wiggins from ODI's Leaping and Learning report, Bruno Losch's report on Rural Transformation and Late Developing Countries, Oxfams'/IIED report Tipping the Balance as well as our own analysis. Many common themes emerge. Additionally the BBA is at a very early stage and it will adapt and change as we learn in the field and as circumstances change.
Thank you Claire. Do you / Grahame Dixie have any information on how will the BBA framework take into account the results of the Independent Panel Review of the Doing Business Report? To what extent will the Doing Business methodology be reutilized in the BBA?
Here is a link of the Independant Panel's report: http://www.dbrpanel.org/sites/dbrpanel/files/doing-business-review-panel-report.pdf
Hi Alice. Tina's blog flags up some of the lessons it should learn. http://community.businessfightspoverty.org/profiles/blogs/tina-chang-doing-business-in-agriculture-how-the-benchmarking. And she also identifies where those lessons have already been taken on board. CAFOD (Sarah Montgomery is online as part of the panel) have done a lot of work on both the BBA and Doing Business - so they definitely have their eye on this!
Hi Alice, we asked members of the BBA team this same question and they told us that they were 'taking these lessons on board' though there was no clear indication at this stage about what this would look like - although the team will be moving to the research department in November which is one of the recommendations of the review. Other than than, no more info at this stage...
Dear Zahid,
As they used to say on the "Blue Peter" children's TV program in the UK, here is something I prepared earlier!
The Benchmarking the Business of Agriculture (BBA) project's inception stems from a request received from the G8 in early 2012, soliciting the World Bank's input on the possible development of a Doing Business in Agriculture Index modeled after the Doing Business project.
The overarching aim of the Benchmarking the Business of Agriculture project is to leverage positive policy change which better enables the emergence of a stronger commercial agricultural sector. The focus is on the ecosystems necessary to support the growth of a modern agriculture sector. The emphasis is particularly on encouraging the emergence of a stronger commercial family farming sector. The work will cover policy, infrastructure, trade, inputs, and in particular those factors affecting the emergence of the necessary network of agribusinesses which will be crucial in marketing input technology, purchasing production, and transforming and delivering food at affordable prices to expanding urban markets.
This work builds on two existing programs within the World Bank Group, the Gates funded Agribusiness Indicators project (ABI) - a survey of 54 agricultural commercialization indicators in 9 Sub-Saharan countries, (http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTARD/0,,contentMDK:23184287~pagePK:148956~piPK:216618~theSitePK:336682,00.html) The synthesis report is now being completed . The findings have formed the core of much of the BBA work. and the Doing Business program. The Benchmarking the Business of Agriculture project blends the Doing Business approach which looks at the detailed regulatory and policy approaches in the Doing Business in Agriculture (DBA) indicators with a series of Deep Dive surveys on specific topics. This approach significantly expands the remit to include a broader range of policies, investments, infrastructure and the overarching enabling environment.
The program has raised funding from five donors (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the United States Agency for International Development, the UK Department for International Development, the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Economic Affairs) for a 3 year (2013-15) program which will cover a sample of approximately 80 countries globally. A joint team has been formed merging staff from the Social Development Network - Agriculture and Environmental Services (AES) Department with those of the Global Indicators and Analysis (GIA) Department to mesh agricultural skills with the expertise in operating international surveys at scale.
An early version of the indicators and the rationale for their selection, along with the overarching theme of the project was presented to the Donors and an Advisory group on June 11th. A program of wider consultation with stakeholders is being undertaken with outreach to NEPAD, NGOs, representatives of European Governments and the private sector. The reaction has been positive, and with strong appreciation for the wider aims of the BBA to cover both short term regulations and policies, with a longer term view of policies, investments and the relevance of particular policies depending on the stage of agricultural development each country is going through.
A first pilot exercise is expected to begin in October in 10 countries, which are: Rwanda, Nepal, Ethiopia ,Mozambique, Uganda, Guatemala, Philippines, Morocco. Ukraine and Spain.
The team will then prepare a synthesis combining short and long term policy issues around the commercialization of agriculture. This will provide stakeholders and client countries with a picture of where their particular country is in relation to others in terms of regulations, policies, and metrics and provide them with a better understanding of the policy options available and the measurements to better manage the process of change.
Though I think it is fair to say that plans not to rank build on the lessons from the Panel - or at least avoid one of the issues Doing Business is criticised for...
True. Lets hope that the BBA team sticks to this recommendation as it really is important.
Q3: Can benchmarking best practice help promote positive policy change? What are the risks of this approach?
We are not saying anything new when we talk about the additional challenges of small farmers because of the high transaction costs they face - it is much more costly to provide services and goods to many (often scattered) enterprises than to a few larger ones. It's for this reason that we want the BBA to include producer collaboration, and not just as contract farmers.
Of course producer organisations have many challenges around internal capacity and sustainability but government policy can help promote those that have potential, enabling farmers to benefit from economies of scale in access to inputs, for example, and in working with others – such as companies looking to expand their markets or supply chains. Contract farming is one type of arrangement that promotes collaboration but it is not the only, and may not be the best, option in every context. Farmers need to have choice and if they choose contract farming this needs more support than just strong contracting laws. They need investment in their capacity to take advantage of contract.
Thanks Grahame! I appreciate the Blue Peter reference, even if some of our international participants may not!
Thank you Sarah & Claire. So, are the World Bank’s snapshots available on ASFG’s website the final version of the material that is going to be used to conduct the BBA pilot studies? Or have these been edited since?
Do you know in which countries will the pilot studies be conducted?