'Chain Empowerment: Supporting African Farmers to Develop Markets': the book examines dynamics of the chain through which farm produce moves

A new book that gives them tips on how to take charge of their farming and improve profits within the decision making chain is going to be launched on Monday next week.

The book, Chain Empowerment: Supporting African Farmers to Develop Markets, examines the dynamics of the chain through which farmers produce moves, and who ultimately gains most in this chain.

Produced by Royal Tropical Institute, Faida Market Link Company Ltd and International Institute of Rural Reconstruction, the book has several case studies in Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Ghana, and Mozambique, where farmers have successfully moved from loss making farming to productions that give them handsome returns.

Success stories such as the Honey farming in Rift valley, and Mango business in Tana River and Lamu, in Coast Province to pineapple farming in Ghana, are highlighted as some of the key case studies for farmers struggling to make an impact in the agricultural sector.

This is because most of the farmers are not within the chain that makes major decisions on how, where and when will their produce be sold.

Now, to help farmers turn this around and become part of the game, the book proposes four ways in which a farmer can improve his or her clout in deciding the quality and pricing of his or her produce.

In the first level, where most small-scale farmers operate as Chain Actors, the book says the farmer produces for both substance and for sell, with someone else determining the price of his or her produce.

Traders buy their goods cheaply because the farmer lacks information on how to improve their produce, how to transport it to the market, and how to make a good profit by influencing the pricing levels. In most cases, what such farmers produce is not even tailored to what the market wants.

As solution to this, the book recommends that the first step is to find ways to improve skills of such farmers on how to produce high yields of higher and more consistent quality that is better suited for the market.

Some of these skills will include farm management, fertilizing, bookkeeping and marketing. Overtime, the skills will transform the farmer into a crop specialist, who makes his or her own decisions on how to grow and sell the produce.

This specialization will further make it possible for the farmer to join other fellow farmers who also specialize in producing that particular type of crop.

Sharing similar interests, they can then form an association that allows them to become chain partners, who, the book notes, can have a great influence on the production and the pricing of their produce.

Most farmers who opt for this are likely to benefit more if they form farmers associations that are able to add value on their product and negotiate for better prices in the market.

Findings in the book indicate that farmers in this kind of relationship end up with good partnerships with traders, processors and retailers to with whom they trade with.

A grouping of this nature also provides an opportunity for them to share ideas and have a common stand on how to solve problems bedeviling them.

In Mombasa, for instance, Kenya Business Development Services together with Ministry of Agriculture and Coast Development Authority have helped Mango growers, who were initially operating as individual, to specialize in the production of mangoes of high quality.

Still, farmers who operate within groups or associations can further improve returns of their produce if, as group, integrate new activities into their farming business.

This means farmers who are just growing and disposing off their produce as raw materials can process it to some extend, sort or package it, before selling.

The book says one of the possible positive effects of this is an increase in the marketability and price of the produce.

Other benefits abound. In cases where the farmer is a chain partner and chain integrator, he or she can use the group to access inputs such as fertilizers at a cheaper price.

Farmers who continue to follow this path evolve to become Co-owners of the chain that control how their produce is marketed and sold.

Those who have succeeded well on this path operate within outfits such as cooperatives, which negotiate, on behalf of the farmers, with both local and foreign traders, and agree on the quality of the produce and its price.

Farmers in the horticultural industry are a classic example of how they have succeeded in this perspective.

The only problem that farmers who take these routes are likely to confront is the resistance from the middle men and other traders who will try to do everything to frustrate any move that challenges the status quo.

Processors of farmers produce are likely to resist any attempts by farmers to take up this role as is likely to put them out of business.

The book further warns that the government authorities may also wittingly or unwittingly frustrate the efforts of farmers to have full control on how, when and where there goods produced are sold.

Nevertheless, the book says the benefits of becoming part of the chain where a farmer has a greater role on how his or her agricultural products are produced and marketed outweigh the costs of not making a move.

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