Greetings and good wishes with this excellent topic.
For social farming (as for any farming project) it is very important to consider how the famers will link to markets.
Too often, 99% of the work is focused on growing, while little planning is put into what happens after harvest, leading to food losses and falling market prices (if a lot of farmers try to sell the same food at the same time).
Many studies on "linking farmers to markets" have been conducted, but the key for social farming is to promote those practices most suitable and economically feasible for smallholders, specifically those that give women multiple options (for direct marketing or storage or home use) in order to maximize benefits and help reduce risks.
Two projects that I have worked on during the past 10 years (EL SHAMS in Upper Egypt, and Hort CRSP in East Africa) can provide some useful lessons:
• Improved access to post-harvest handling centers (e.g. pre-cooling and cold stores, packinghouses or food processing facilities) improves the bargaining position of small farmer groups and affiliated farmers. Access to post-harvest centers where growers can sort, grade and pack their fresh produce, pre-cool it and store it in cold stores until such time as price disputes are resolved or alternate buyers identified, thereby limiting their losses after harvest if and when marketing disputes arise.
• Investment in supporting structures such as packinghouses and the mechanisms to support them should start early so that the project can support them from set-up to full implementation and. Such undertakings require at least a three year learning curve – one to set up and learn; one to operate and learn from mistakes, and the third year for operators to take full responsibility from the project.
• Infrastructure development should start early during the life of the project. The necessary steps (site identification, facility design, feasibility studies, approvals, environmental assessments, construction, equipment procurements, etc) can take a very long time.
• Risk can be reduced if farmers grow crops that can be dried, stored and sold when prices return to medium or high levels – e.g. dry beans, medicinal and aromatic plants (herbs and spices).
• Growers associations play an important role in facilitating training courses and introduction of new crops, as well as in managing contracts and agreements of sales beyond the capacity of individual farmers.
• Farmer to farmer learning (e.g. onion production and field curing was noted as an example of where growers from one area shared experiences with farmers in another area in Egypt) was well received… such a model could be scaled out.
• The timeliness of user-demanded training is important. Hands-on training worked best (ex: demonstrations of improved harvesting practices during the actual harvest time).
• Growers associations need longer term technical assistance for improved organizational development, to establish and maintain good business practices, manage links with buyers, and to learn to properly manage and maintain their postharvest facilities. Farmers need access to training on an on-going basis, since as they learn new skills, needs will continue to change. In East Africa, for example, training for women's groups during the first year focused on solar drying and jam/juice making methods, but in the second year they were requested training in direct marketing strategies.
• New services developed under the EL SHAMS project created new job opportunities for the residents of Upper Egypt villages. Examples include skilled harvesting labor, grading, packing, truck driving, and working in collection/drying centers. New skills under the Hort CRSP East Africa Postharvest Extension project created opportunities for small business development for women (as individuals, widow's groups, church-based groups, etc) to market the many products they made from a variety of perishable food crops.
Dr. Lisa Kitinoja
The Postharvest Education Foundation
PO Box 38, La Pine, Oregon 97739 USA
Lisa Kitinoja