Your question touches upon a crucial aspect of sustainable agriculture. While certified organic produce can indeed command price premiums in international markets, scaling this approach for local markets in countries like Kenya and Tanzania poses unique challenges.
Achieving price premiums locally often depends on factors like consumer awareness, demand for organic products, and local certification processes. It’s an evolving landscape, but initiatives promoting organic and sustainable agriculture can pave the way for smallholder farmers to access better prices, not only in international markets but also within their own communities.
Balancing both global and local market strategies can create a more inclusive and scalable model for smallholder farmers
The risks associated with addressing farmer livelihoods and food security are primarily related to climate change impacts such as extreme weather events, pests and diseases, and changing rainfall patterns. These risks may lead to reduced crop yields, increased production costs, and income instability, negatively affecting farmers’ livelihoods. However, there are also significant opportunities in developing innovative solutions, such as improved access to climate information, adoption of climate-resilient crops, and promoting market linkages for small-scale farmers. These can help farmers mitigate the risks and seize opportunities arising from climate change.
We also need to lower the barriers to access for loans. Re-think what can count as collateral. Address the barriers women have to access. Do we have the right financial products? What are the barriers to access? How prohibitive are interest rates?
Over 80% of Malawians are dependent on smallholder agriculture and 70% of the population live below the international poverty line and around a third of the population are food insecure. Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world.
Lack of refrigeration and access to markets mean that Malawian farmers suffer an average of 30 per cent post-harvest loss of their produce, and up to 50 per cent for softer crops such as tomatoes. Climate change is also causing erratic rainfall and unreliable yields and, combined with a lack of access to reliable markets, means many small farmers cannot secure a reliable income. Women farmers face additional barriers, including limited access to land and finance and a lack of time for earning money caused by family care responsibilities.
Practical Action has been working in Northern Malawi with local social enterprise Modern Farming Technologies and womens farming co-operatives in an innovative rent-to-own scheme which enables the women to pay-back progressively and eventually own the solar irrigation unit and the greenhouse in under 4 years.
Victoria, who manages sales for MFT described the buyer’s experience: “Part of the reason why our customers buy our produce is because it is high quality, and the shelf life is good. We sell to shops, hotels, restaurants, the larger community, and the number of farmers’ markets we supply within the region is also growing.
Contracts for the highest grade tomatoes included the retail chain Shoprite, who would previously source their produce from South Africa, as well as high-end hotels. A significant proportion is still sold in the informal sector which gives the women a range of options.
Post harvest loss has now been reduced to less than 10%.
Risks:
• Lack of political will
• Uprising by the farmers
• Implementation lags
• Disruptions in the market
Opportunities
• Coalitions and partnerships
• Enabling early adopters and champions
• Creating sustainable solutions for continued support
A3
Transitioning Risks:
Learning Curve: Farmers who are accustomed to conventional farming methods may face a significant learning curve when transitioning to agroecology, organic agriculture, or permaculture. These sustainable practices require a different set of knowledge and skills, from understanding complex ecological relationships to implementing new cultivation techniques.
Yield Fluctuations: During the transition period, farmers may experience fluctuations in yields. This is because sustainable agricultural practices often take time to establish and optimize. For example, when switching to organic agriculture, it may take a few seasons for soil health to improve and for organic matter to build up, resulting in temporary yield variations.
Financial Risks: These transitional challenges can pose financial risks for farmers. Lower yields or increased expenses due to new practices can impact income in the short term. The financial strain may discourage some farmers from continuing with sustainable practices if they do not see immediate benefits.
That’s why farmers who are interested in transitioning to sustainable farming practices are always advised to start small so that they learn the best sustainable practices that work for them in their localities before fully transitioning to avoid fluctuation risks.
The biggest risk is what used to happen some years back, organizations would come up with academic theoretical solutions that do not consider the context of the communities and regions we are working. This leads to the failure of projects to bring the desired impacts or even resulting in more harm than good. The opportunity here is in locally-led adaptation actions and strategies. we have to have the communities lead in identifying solutions to their problems and then move from that point
Yes! Women’s World Banking is working with policymakers on moveable collaterals for women – here are threecase studies on moveable collateral. Here’s a note specifically on moveable collateral in Mexico.
We’ve also been brainstorming with the Innovation Lab for Small Scale Irrigation working on small-scale irrigation – figuring how financing for women’s small farms.
We need a substantive change to a more systems focused approach to farming, which is not what most companies and their farming support are set up for. The focus and support packages from big companies generally focus on the individual crop that they are interested in coffee or tea for example and getting the quality and yields that they need.
It is a big shift to think about how to source the crops they need from integrated farming systems with a focus on diversification and soil health to build resilience. It was fascinating talking to companies about the shifts that they have had to make. For example the different types of knowledge their agronomists and farming support staff needed to know, coffee companies looking at how to trade beans and maize or form partnerships with companies with that expertise and link up organisations with soil health expertise.
“where do our services stop” is a good example of what companies struggles with
And of course, as with all transitions there are costs involved and who pays for that transition is a key question. What is the best way of providing good regenerative agriculture support, the exact nature of what is going to work is very context specific?
It can take several years for returns to come through and smaller farmers in particular cannot finance that and the investment community is not geared up for this at the moment.
Opportunities:
Agroecology, Organic Agriculture, and Permaculture: These approaches offer a long-term vision of sustainable agriculture that preserves soil health, biodiversity, and ecosystem services. Over time, this not only secures food security but also provides opportunities for economic growth and resilience against climate challenges.
Digital Technology and Data-driven Agriculture: Combining digital tools with agroecology, organic agriculture, and permaculture practices opens up new opportunities. Precision agriculture, aided by satellite data and mobile applications, optimizes resource use, minimizes waste, and enhances productivity. This not only benefits farmers economically but also reduces the environmental footprint of agriculture.
Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA): Integrating EbA strategies within agroecological, organic, and permaculture systems offers opportunities to enhance both climate resilience and environmental sustainability. Practices like reforestation, wetland restoration, and watershed management provide additional ecosystem services such as water purification and carbon sequestration. These approaches can generate income streams for farmers while safeguarding food security.
I wouldn’t necessarily characterise it as risk, but I would say that the main obstacle is that the alternative (i.e. not bothering to do so) is all too easy. There aren’t huge disincentives to carrying on BAU for now, and creating new approaches is still hard, potentially costly, potentially time-consuming, potentially disruptive, and potentially ineffective. That makes it a hard sell. But the opportunity is being at the forefront of a global change in the way we think about value in our food systems: who creates value, what value really means, how it should be distributed, and how we create long-term value for all our stakeholders.
Creating solutions to deliver on farmer livelihoods and food security requires a comprehensive approach that considers the unique context and challenges faced by farmers. This includes solutions that address access to finance, technology transfer, capacity building, and market integration. By promoting sustainable farming practices, providing training and education, and facilitating market access, we can empower farmers to adapt to climate change, enhance productivity, and improve their incomes.
Relevant regulatory frameworks that are worth explore:
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2021/30/contents/enacted
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB260
In Tanzania, Hand In Hand has found that engaging with cultural gate keepers such as community and traditional leaders has unlocked improved gender attitudes amongst women’s participation in rural economies. A control trial showed that those women whose partners engaged in the training had more progressive views on women working for the benefit of the whole family.
The desired outcomes from food systems have become well-articulated in terms of three main areas in this discussion:
- ensuring food security and optimal nutrition for all.
- meeting socio-economic goals, in particular reducing poverty and inequalities.
- enabling humanity’s food needs to be met within planetary environmental and climate boundaries.
Overall, food systems are recognized as needing to function with the properties of being resilient to shocks, sustainable over the long-term and equitable in terms of the costs and benefits to different groups in society.
Across these food system outcomes and properties, there are inevitable trade-offs and synergies, which bring with them the potential for both conflict and collaboration between different interest groups. While the broad directions for desired food system outcomes and properties are relatively well established, the nature and extent of these synergies and trade-offs is much less well understood. More work is also needed to establish specific criteria, directions for change and targets for food system outcomes, which will be necessary to guide transformation at national or local levels, within sectors or across business operations. More attention needs to be given to how the criteria and targets for food systems transformation align with those of the SDGs.
And in general the EU Green Deal
@nfaithwambui and others have brought up climate change stresses on producers – what always stuns me is that there’s limited data on the economic impacts on producers’ households! More social-environmental research is needed, per IPCC scientists and others, to reflect and communicate more clearly so that people are inspired to take action.
A4: Women’s World Banking is excited to partner with businesses and foundations to continue to expand the evidence base. To inform business decisions and advocate for women farmers’ increased services, more data is needed to direct solutions that meet women agricultural producers’ needs amidst political and social pressures and a changing climate. Read our Research Agenda here.
This conversation will remain up here. if you want to contribute at any time you can. We will be taking a Snap-shot at the end of 27th October and pulling all your thoughts into a summary. In the last 5 minutes of this live portion, do feel free to challenge us - what have we not talked about which we need to?