Hi everyone,
Here is the latest input received for Topic #5 - The importance of food businesses to small farms
5.1/2 - Question: "5.1. What kind of food businesses are important to small farms in your region? Which of these are small food businesses? Please also explain how you define small food businesses."
There is growing trend of vertical cooperation, wherein, the processors, retailers and exporters are helping farmers grow food and other cash crops of required quality, often supporting small farmers with technical know-how,
inputs and infrastructure.
Recently we visited an entrepreneur in North Indian state (Uttar Pradesh), who was supporting a group of about 2000 small scale farmers growing mint crop as certified organic for export of organic mint oil to US & EU. These
farmers were also producing cereals & pulses organically to be procured by him. It is just because of the support from this entrepreneur, they could convert to organic production & earn price premiums.
The vertical cooperation appears to increase in future to meet the requirements of market especially on quality front. India has the largest number of organic producers in the world, who are basically small
scale producers. Most of their organic products are put into organic value chains by entrepreurs and exporters. India's export of organic products worth about 300 Million USD (http://apeda.gov.in/apedawebsite/organic/Organic_Products.htm)
has been contributed by mostly small scale producers.
Also, in domestic markets, Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) of organic certification is promoting cooperation among farmers. The PGS certification is being promoted by Indian Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers'
Welfare among the clusters or groups of farmers. The organic food production is paving the way for both vertical and horizontal cooperation.
A large majority of small farmers are actually informal family businesses. They are farm businesses with all kinds of agricultural activities (including arboriculture, livestock - sheep, goats, cows, but all in smaller amounts).
The problem these business have, is the lack of a commercial license (“Patente”). On the other hand, as they also represent smaller commercial activities (and smaller business figures), they are exempted from taxes.
These “small businesses” are defined by specific criteria (business turn-over, number of people employed,..). Many of these small farm business are family-run with workers not being paid an actual wage (as they are family
members).
I am Solange Umutoni, a masters candidate in science of Agriculture and Applied economics. I am from Rwanda.
What I call "small food businesses" are businesses retailing processed commodities, selling food products directly from the farm at the market and restaurants services without food complex processing industries.
Here in Rwanda, the food market includes what is being grown locally and some imported commodities. The locally grown commodities are Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes, maize, rice, beans, various vegetables (Cabbages, green beans, red and green pepper,
carrots, …..), various fruits( tomarilo, passion fruits, mangoes, avocadoes, pineapples,…..) and cash crops (tea, coffee and pyrethrum).
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5.2/1 - Question: “5.2. Do food businesses in your region play an important role within the food system? How? Please provide specific examples.
Yes, (in Morocco), food businesses play a strategic role in the food system:
- Collection of produce e.g. collection of milk, argan oil or olive oil from small farmers, and the redistribution/resale of these products
- A lot of food businesses are organized in cooperatives, where e.g. producer groups can work together, to decide on markets and prices.
From Eliot Gee, writing on behalf of the Biodiversity for Food and Nutrition Project (BFN), from Bioversity International HQ in Rome. (
http://www.b4fn.org )
Our project (BFN) works with local producers in Brazil, Kenya, Turkey, and Sri Lanka to promote cultivation and consumption of indigenous species. Many farmers face difficulty receiving a fair price for their crops and have only limited access to the market.
However, there has been considerable success connecting schools, hospitals, social programs, and other organizations with local procurers to provide a fair price and reduce the costs of shipping and storage. Below are two examples of small business strategies:
For Kenyan farmers in Busia County, Home Grown School Feeding has been particularly effective at granting a fair price for leafy vegetables (in fact cutting procurement costs for the school as well) with the added benefit of supplying fresh and healthy
meals for students (nutrition analysis has demonstrated the higher benefits of many indigenous crops such as bambara nut or finger millet).
In Sri Lanka, women have initiated a market outlet business called “Hela Bojun” which empowers them as primary breadwinners for their families while sharing traditional cooking techniques (it is also popular on TripAdvisor).
These different approaches to sustainable value chains keep produce within the local economy and help with conservation efforts, invigorating communities at multiple levels. A challenge is building capacity at the wider regional and national level through
policy that explicitly recognizes the value of these initiatives and supports futher market opportunities or partnerships with social programs and other vulnerable populations.
The importance of food businesses for small farmers, is that enable a direct sales from the farmer to the buyer. The farmers have a direct hand in the price negotiation and the farmer
can seek for a market of the produce, before the actual harvest. This ensures that there will be no losses because of the perishability of the produce.
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