المنتدى العالمي المعني بالأمن الغذائي والتغذية

CGIAR's mandate for 'Economies of Scope' and nutrition through agriculture ensure achieving the MDGs in the short term

 

I am sharing the mails exchanged and attachs shared on the subject, with the CGIAR, Prof Swaminathan and others, in an effort to put this subject on top of the table, if we are to achieve the MDGs and in the short term.

 

Dear all,

Very interesting discussion on nutrition sensitive agriculture. I think the best pathway to nutrition for small holder farmers in developing country is agriculture-based nutrition intervention. If the food they produce is nutritious, they could supplement other foods (like cereals) from purchase within the village or available through market mechanisms. Therefore, sustainable technology producing more nutritious food is essential. Whatever land these people have or whatever opportunity is possible to improve access to land, these need to be tapped to grow nutritious food through sustainable technology and social arrangements (like economies of scope) that could enhance all the capitals of these people - social, natural, finance and human.

Thanks for putting me in the loop. I hope Bonn conference goes well. I would have liked to come to Bonn to share my ideas but t is too late for now.

jagannath

(Jagannath Adhikari)

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Subhash Mehta <[email protected]>

To: "Myriam Ait Aissa (ACF)" <[email protected]>,

"[email protected]" <[email protected]>,

[email protected]

Date: Sun, 15 Sep 2013 13:41:25 +0530

Subject: 'Economies of Scope' & nutrition through agriculture ensures long term sustainability of smallholder producers

Dear Myriam,

I am forwarding the mails exchanged by me with the CGIAR and Prof Swaminathan in this regard along with all the attachments for your assistance. Please do press home the fact that the CGIAR needs to revisit its 'Economies of scale' mandate, as it works against the rural poor smallholder producer communities who need to follow the low cost integrated agriculture of their area adopting 'Economies of Scope' to have access for their needs of nutritious food at little or no cost,

if we are to achieve the MDGs and in the short time.

Wishing you and Christine all the best and hope you are both able to persuade the CGIAR into re writing their mandates if they mean what they say about serving the poor smallholder producer communities.

Warm regards

Subhash

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Subhash Mehta <[email protected]>

Date: Sun, Sep 8, 2013 at 4:18 PM

Subject: 'Economies of Scope' ensures long term sustainability of

smallholder producers

To: "William D. Dar ap" <[email protected]>

Cc: Prof M S Swaminathan <[email protected]>,

Dear Willie,

This has reference to the mails exchanged and Prof Swaminathan's response in this regard, trailed below.

I am  quoting from the matrix, Ideas for Research, Project Design,

Implementation and policy for ‘nutrition sensitive food in

agriculture’, as attached:

‘Biofortification - Nutrient-rich crop varieties can be produced through genetic modification but until concerns about GMOs are adequately addressed, biofortified crops be bred by traditional methods’.

Prof Swaminathan's concern above, is reiterated by Jack Heineman, calling for better research and better process, before continuing to release GM crops into the environment or using them as food, reported by the Hindu and available at:

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/keep-the-pause-button-on-gm-pressed/article5101446.ece

To assist the CGIAR in using the $400 million committed by the Gates Foundation to facilitate producer communities and all other people to access the required quantities of nutritious food, while contributing to economic growth, I am also attaching the following docs on

nutritious food through agriculture:

1. Enhancing the role of smallholder farmers in achieving sustainable

food and nutrition security

2. Synthesis of guiding principles on agriculture programming for nutrition

3. Key recommendations for Improving Nutrition through Agriculture

4. Sustainable nutrition security restoring the bridge between

agriculture and health

Looking forward to more action in this regard from the CGIAR,

Warm regards

Subhash

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Prof M S Swaminathan <[email protected]>

Date: Thu, Sep 5, 2013 at 4:06 PM

Subject:

To: [email protected]

MSS/RM/ 5 September 2013

Dear Shri Mehta

Thank you very much for sending me a copy of your letter to Dr Willie Dar.  You have made important points.

With warm regards,

Yours sincerely,

M S Swaminathan

PROF M S SWAMINATHAN

Founder Chairman and Chief Mentor

UNESCO Chair in Ecotechnology

M S Swaminathan Research Foundation

Third Cross Street, Taramani Institutional Area

Chennai - 600 113

Tel: +91 44 2254 2790 / 2254 1229 / 2254 1698; Fax: +91 44 2254 1319

Email: [email protected]

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Srinivasrao, M (ICRISAT-IN) <[email protected]>

Date: Wed, Aug 28, 2013 at 4:05 PM

Subject: Your mail :

To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>

Cc: "Dar, William  (ICRISAT-IN)" <[email protected]>, "Bantilan, C

(ICRISAT-IN)" <[email protected]>

Dear  Mr Subhash Mehta ,

Your  mail of Aug 27h to Dr William Dar , has been marked to me for perusal and follow-up.

Thank  you for your insights on IMOD and the  two paradigms ( scale and scope ) and also your views on producer company organizations. At times , the challenge is how to  develop  the metrics of measurement and impact  at the farmer  level  especially when you are looking at scale  and from a value chain perspective .

I am also going through the attachments you had sent of Dr Nayak of XIMB  .

I hope to  discuss more  with you  in the  days to come .

Best regards /

Srinivas Rao

Specialist ; Markets , Research and Innovation .

ICRISAT

-----Original Message-----

From: Dar, William (ICRISAT-IN)

Sent: Wednesday, August 28, 2013 6:20 AM

To: Bantilan, C (ICRISAT-IN); Srinivasrao, M (ICRISAT-IN)

Subject: FW: Your mail

-----Original Message-----

From: Subhash Mehta [mailto:[email protected]]

Sent: 27 August 2013 23:46

To: Dar, William (ICRISAT-IN)

Subject: Your mail

Dear Willie,

You had asked me to read your talk at the MS Swaminathan Leadership in Agriculture Award Ceremony, in New Delhi, explaining CGIAR's 'Inclusive market oriented development (IMOD)' vision, developed for the decade ending 2020, as available at:

MDW TAAS DGs_Enhancing Smallholder_Scr .pdf (1.0MB), and then give you my comments. The attached table clusters the terminologies in two paradigms from your talk.

Governments, NARES, CGIAR, etc., all appear to be very concerned about hunger, malnutrition, poverty and suicides in the smallholder producer communities (producers) and the effects of climate change on them.They also appear to be equally serious about improving their livelihoods, increasing net income and purchasing power and that developing countries drive economic growth in a ustainable manner and for the long term.

The Old & New Paradigms, shared with you earlier, as attached, urgently requires that the new Paradigms be implemented, first by including the low cost integrated agriculture system of each area and included in all the mandates. Also the contracting of farmers for wide replication of their successful models, as extension services are required to be provided to producers for improving their communities' economic condition. This also means supporting and assisting in the setting up of the producer orgs/ company (PC) intervention, if they are to have access to their annual nutritious food and cash needs.

The PC intervention is a critical component of the New Paradigm. The resource poor producers, mostly illiterate and isolated, need policies seeking 'Economies of Scope', some of which have been addressed in your talk, also listed in the attached table. Thus, producers need these policies which work for them as they and their families work their farms 24x7, 365 days and under hardship conditions, not the policies seeking 'economies of scale', also listed in the table, as they are in the interest of the commercial organisations, The producers need the required assistance to set up their PC and for staffing with professionals, to shoulder all responsibilities and manage risks, other than on farm activities.The PC, tested over time, adopting 'Economy of Scope,' policies ensures:

Smallholder agriculture contributes to improved nutrition and achieves the MDGs,

A bottom up 'Producers' Jury (IIED/ DDS model)' to ascertain their

IAR4D and other needs,

Following a low cost integrated agriculture to meet their own

nutritious food and cash needs,

Creating human and institutional capacity (women, men and youth)

within the community,

Assistance for setting up their PC, staffed with professionals trained

to be general practitioner (GPs)/ MBAs in agriculture,

Culture of planning & budgeting, to manage through weekly/ monthly/

quarterly and annual meetings of concerned stakeholders at each level,

Quarterly internal audit of performance by an independent person,

Arrangements are made for capital and working capital requirement -

get rid of money lenders,

Facilitating members to produce inputs and energy on farm,

Putting in place water harvesting and recharging of wells and bore

wells in each farm,

Value addition for increasing the shelf life of produce/products &

storage till prices peak,

Provision for reserves and emergencies with storage of nutritious

food, etc., in PC go downs,

Management of post harvest losses by covering production with orders in advance.

In these circumstances, you will be happy to know that some donors, managing public funds, are now stipulating that funds are used only for 'Public Good', thus putting producers' needs seeking 'Economies of Scope', on top of their agenda, when considering requests for funding/ loans. It is also vital that concept notes/ project proposals and requests for conferences/ workshops, etc., when requesting donor funding, should first be debated by all stakeholders, with donors setting up an 'Electronic Consultation Process', ensuring that all proposals follow the 'economies of scope' paradigm, removing all grey areas from the proposals, which otherwise could drift to the

'economies of scale' paradigm.

You will agree with me that a mechanism is needed to ensure that requests received midstream for change to, 'Economies of Scale' from 'Economies of Scope' policies of sanctioned projects, primarily to meet the needs of the value chains focusing on a 'Market Oriented Development', are not accepted. Further, for proposals received in the future, donors also need to include in their contract that if such

requests are received midstream, the project will be terminated and that the PEA will return the funds already disbursed.

Warm regards,

Subhash

Message 1

Women, Men and Nutrition

Fri Sep 13, 2013 8:10 am (PDT) . Posted by:

"Myriam Ait Aissa"

Dear colleagues,

I'm happy to come back to you on this « Nutrition&Agriculture » issue.Indeed, as you might know, ACF (Acton agains hunger) is very involved in tackling undernutrition.

In this regards, I have been asked to coordinate a break out session in the "Facilitating Research Uptake : highlighting the importance of considering the empowerment of decision-making within households" for the biennial CGIAR Science Forum (http://scienceforum13.org), which will be held from September 23-25, 2013 in Bonn. The main objective of this conference is to improve griculture's impact on Nutrition and health outcomes.

In preparation to this meeting, I would be delighted to get your views as Civil Societies Organizations and representative of farmers associations on the two following questions:

- What would your members would like to ask about Nutrition?

- According to your members, what interest do men have in the

nutrition of their children?

I allow myself to put Christine Okali from IDS into copy of this

message as we defined these two questions together.

Thanks in advance for your feedback - I will be very happy to be able to get / bring some of your views in this CGIAR meeting,

Best regards

Myriam Aït-Aïssa

Research Manager

Tel : + 00 33 (0)1 43 35 88 58

Email : [email protected][email protected]>

Action Contre la Faim

4 rue Niepce

75662 PARIS Cedex 14

FRANCE

http://www.actioncontrelafaim.orghttp://www.actioncontrelafaim.org/&gt;

Fax : +00 33 (0)1 43 35 88 00

[cid:[email protected]]

--

Subhash Mehta, Trustee,

Devarao Shivaram Trust,

NGO Association for Agricultural Research Asia Pacific (NAARAP),

Hegenahalli PO, Devanahalli Taluka,

Bangalore Rural North, Pin Code: 562110,

Tel: +91-80-28494009 / +91-80-22712290,

 

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