Am I noticing a major oversight in your list of people/organization to be included in your community discussions? I notice no mention of private service providers. Is that correct? Why the omission? Don’t they provide most of the business services in smallholder communities? I understand they are often vilified as trying to be greedy and only look at profits, which is the major reason for total commitment to producer organization. Is there any documented proof of this with verifiable accounting data? This might be extremely difficult as if you look at the overall economic environment in most host countries the private sector profit margin in razor thin, so the higher administrative overhead associated with producer organizations could result in relying on producer organizations could force smallholder farmers deeper into poverty. Can anyone provide detailed accounting comparison between private traders and producer organizations? I have been seeking this for nearly 20 years but have been unable to find any solid reference comparing the two business models.
Also, concerning private services providers, when we eventually accept the critical necessity to facilitate access to contract mechanization if we are ever to become serious about poverty alleviation for smallholder farmers, this will have to be done through individually owner/operator businesses. As any communal ownership via government agency or producer organizations results in valuable equipment being surveyed out of service with at most half the designed 10,000 operating hours. Just look at the line-up of out of service tractors at all the Nigerian ADP offices. If you need to note the impact of mechanization on smallholder production just review the shift from water buffalo to power tillers in paddy Asia. There it halved the crop established time, allow expansion of area cultivated, made double cropping rice a comfortable prospect and when the small combines were introduced rice production intensified to 5 crops every 2 years. Also, look at the role of contract mechanization in Egypt that is now the primary means of land preparation for smallholder farmers.
I hope all this supports the need to include private service providers in any discussion on any effort to improve social well-being in smallholder communities.
Referring to the groups you are including, how representative are they of the community you are serving. Isn’t it true that most producer organizations only attract about 10% of potential members, with 90 percent avoiding them, and perhaps wisely so? Also, don’t even the members usually side sell the bulk of their produce to those vilified private service providers? And don’t most producer organizations collapse once the external assistance ends, perhaps even before the last expatriate advisor clears the departure lounge enroute home? Not really an effective effort but has been the primary mechanism for assisting smallholders for some 40 years. How about the other organizations mentioned in the introduction, what percent of potential participants do they attract, vs. what percent happily operated independent of all organized assistance? Thus, do you have a sufficient quorum of active participants to act for the community as a whole? Remember projects are designated to serve an entire community not just a limited percentage.
Finally, all these coordinating meetings can consume a lot of time. How much time is consumed and how often is this a distraction from the primary task of producing agriculture output or providing essential services to the producers?
I am including a reference to an article I prepared for a symposium here at Colorado State University reflecting on my 50+ years working with smallholder farmers. The article is more factually accurate than politically correct and only an emeritus professor no longer beholden to the system has the freedom to be. The article covers more details for most of the rather provocative ideas expressed above. The link: https://agsci.colostate.edu/smallholderagriculture/wp-content/uploads/sites/77/2023/03/Reflections.pdf
Thank you
Dr. Dick Tinsley