Really interesting conversation!
Let's move on to the second question:
Q2: What should be the role of governments, business, development agencies and other stakeholders in addressing these challenges? How can these different groups be incentivized to contribute?
There are so many actors across the value chain. within this business model it's of absolute importance to have more transparency in the physical flow (traceability) as well as remuneration of the different players (incl. raw material costs and services provided). we are of the opinion that the risks and benefits need to be balanced out between the different players. The more transparent the system becomes, the more trustworthy all the players become.
The joint effort between government-sponsored extension services and private sector interest to transfer knowledge of best practices to increase productive capacity, quality, and quantity has a direct link to increased farmer productivity and income. The benefits of training and education reach are experienced across the value chain: Farmers are enabled to become successful Entrepreneurs, private sector benefits from improved quantity and quality of cocoa to purchase, the development project donors and implementers benefit from achieving sustainable change, the government achieves progress towards its strategic goals, and even consumers on different continents benefit from a more affordable product produced in a more sustainable manner.
The real challenges is that weak institutions in these countries do not allow for adequate training for farmers, the one you are referring to. This cannot be guided exclusively by the Ministry of Education. Making this a national priority, with support from the other ministries, such as Ministry of Finance, who control the budged and the Ministry of Agriculture, is one important step. Also, instead of waiting to “fix the educational system” at the national level, it is important to take more concrete step at specific geographical locations. This will require more innovative partnership among the farmers, farmers’ organizations, bigger agribusiness companies, donors and foundations, and development organizations, such as the World Bank.
Djordjija
Welcome to everyone!
I am very happy to share this discussion with all of you to learn about the different expriences about inspiring the next geration of farmers from the perspective of self-sufficient schools.
It would make a huge difference if governments and development agencies could make themselves effective facilitators of positive change from the bottom up, rather than the only possible originators of policy and instruments of policy from the top down. It would make a big difference if businesses were legally required to deliver triple bottom line benefits - not just short-term financial ones to their shareholders and heavily penalised for environmental and social damage that they presently do not pay for at all.
If we look only at Nespresso, around 75,000 mainly small holder coffee farmers are directly benefitting from our direct purchasing scheme, for which we pay premium prices (i.e. prices above market average). These are all part of the success story of Nespresso that you are mentioning.
In addition, more than 650,000 farmers are part of our direct procurement scheme, and they also benefit from premium prices, meeting our safety and food quality requirements
Cool to hear that! Do you have any idea on how they could realize more premiums such that Nespresso would benefit even more?
Agree with this. Before the producing countries Government can fix shortcomings in agriculture training and education on a national level, successful technology transfer systems must be implemented together with regional Government institutions. Bottom up approach not only in smallholder training, but also in achieving systemic changes on how Governments address "Farmer Training" may lead to sustainable policy revisions.
All stakeholders, including the government, business, NGOs and development agencies, should work together to address this challenge.
The government has an important role to play in providing an enabling environment for farmers to succeed. This includes making investments in agriculture and infrastructure as well as investing in relevant education and training. It also has a role to play in incentivising the other players to address this challenge. This can take the form of building infrastructure which will encourage the private sector to invest in a specific area, like roads or collection centres, as well as facilitating collaboration between different key players, like business and civil society.
Great to see such a lively discussion!
Let's move on to our third question:
Q3: How can we make agriculture more attractive to young people? Where should investment in agricultural training and education be focused?
At Nestlé we believe that to be successful in the long term businesses must create not only financial value (i.e to shareholders) but also create value for society at large, more particularly communities where we are active. This is what we call Creating Shared Value. We have determined three areas of focus, nutrition, water, and rural development. These are the areas where we believe that the interest of both our business and society interact and this is where we can create shared value.
Technical and vocational education is expensive and not available for the poorest. Usually in developing countries, traditional farmers are poor and not able to access this type of education.
Realizing this issue and the lack of skills in rural youth to generate the necessary income to overcome poverty, Fundación Paraguaya developed an education model that targets low-income rural youth and provides secondary education integrating regular curriculum subjects with the running of on-campus enterprises that are run by students and teachers. Working under the methodology of learning by doing, earning, and saving, this experience allows them to develop the skills and knowledge needed to develop new businesses on their properties, learn how to manage the farm, cost analysis and production planning with emphasis on how much money they can produce.
We also need to recognise that sometimes rural development is not high priority enough in some governments' agenda.
Greetings and thank you for this forum and the wealth of comments so far.
In 2013, Making Cents International conducted a participatory “Deep Dive” into the topic of economic opportunities for rural youth. Some conclusions from leading practitioners, researchers and funders include:
1) The endeavor of keeping young people on the farm and out of the cities runs counter to historic and global trends of young people migrating to cities for better opportunities as agriculture modernizes. In addition, most farming families aspire for their children to leave the farm for better opportunities. While farming is a necessary or desirable activity for a cohort of young people, this cohort is a minority in most situations.
2) Instead, we need to pay attention to what kinds of opportunities are relevant for what kinds of young people, at what stage in their lives and in what kinds of rural areas. Policy and practice need to reflect the diversity of rural young people. Some young people farm quick return cash crops in order to earn money to invest in education for a different career. Young mother living in poverty need a lower risk, more stable income stream, often provided by a combination of on and off farm activities.
3) Agriculture and food security recommendations: Include youth (of both genders) in policy, research and projects, in production but also other agri-businesses like trading, processing, input supply, technology dissemination, etc. (Farming as a Family Business is a great approach to youth inclusion in typical agricultural extension or value chain development work.) Target different “packages” to different economic levels of farms. Ensure that sustainable sourcing initiatives include youth beyond the basics of eliminating child labor. Incorporate agriculture and agri-business into rural school curricula.
4) Recommendations outside the agriculture sector include:
Details and multiple cases are presented in State of the Field in Youth Economic Opportunities 2013 forthcoming in January from Making Cents International www.makingcents.com .
Mary McVay,Enterprise Development Kiosk
Consultant to Making Cents International
We know that most of today’s generation youth are interested in using technology and are searching for innovations, we could link this interest with agriculture. We take opportunity of this in our program in Indonesia by introducing farm data collection and tracing cocoa deliveries with android based software on tablet handhelds. It is such a breakthrough to combine agriculture and technology for better management of farm businesses and information of farm data which is very important for more transparent and traceable supply chains.
This also provides additional income sources as traceable cocoa from smallholders through farmer organizations up to the off takers warehouses generates a premium price in the market.
All very well as to what producing country governments "should " be doing but they do not do it - it may be a financial constraint or an inequitable distribution of resources taking the view that cocoa farmers are better off than others. Only now are we even discussing National Plans and I fear that these will not take the shape that is necessary for the reform of smallholder farming and really addressing the issues. If the private sector and cocoa consuming governments work together to focus on the real problem areas and not get bogged down in the earnings of multinationals and general criticism of a supply chain that is complicated because of the lack of organisation of farmers then we will be better placed. To address food safety and ethical issues as well as farmer poverty needs big picture thinking and responses - not just consuing country governemnts putting funds into develoment agencies that do not tackle these major issues.
If we’re going to retain young, talented people in rural areas, we need to invest in human development, training and education. We also need to expose them to new technologies and income opportunities that are equivalent to those in urban areas. Offering an attractive lifestyle in rural areas is impotant as a way of giving them social recognition.
Thanks for the great questions and all the responses so far, it's a critical topic as urban markets grow and agricultural sectors have an opportunity to 'step up'. Responding to Han's point above about many actors our learning in Practical Action has been that having processes that enable key actors (private, public, small, medium, large, powerful and marginalised) to have genuine dialogue with each other so they can build trust and together work on blockages or opportunites is vital. And if we want to inspire younger farmers they should be involved in those processes and have ways to contribute their ideas and aspirations. Our particular approach is called Participatory Market System Development http://practicalaction.org/pmsd
Younger farmers don't need to see farming as a life sentence, but instead getting involved in an agri-business needs to seem more exciting. Working with others in the market system could help them to change how they see their future.
Based in our experience, educational institutions as the self-sufficient schools become a center of community development that allows to create a value chain within the community, to help create shared value with other organizations and stakeholders, and connect one another in the attempt of improving and inspiring new ideas to support the growth and quality of life of young farmers and their families.