Gaye Burpee

What farmers want: collective capacity for sustainable entrepreneurship

Expanding equitable access to product markets for millions of poor farmers is of critical importance to the development of sustainable rural livelihoods in developing countries. This paper addresses the question of how to improve strategies for improving their capacity to access dynamic markets on a large scale. Skill formation receives little attention in the current debate about how to overcome wealth-differentiated barriers to market entry in poor rural societies. Public investment in skill development for the rural poor fails to meet actual livelihood skill needs. By using a methodology to study farmer groups in three countries that built theory “from the bottom up,” this papers research identified an unmet, grass-roots demand in farmer groups for combining five skill sets that in combination, represent capacity for sustainable entrepreneurship. Not only is the demand for a broader approach to capacity development emerging out of groups of poor farmers, the combined skills are collective attributes formed and exercised by farmer groups that are successfully delivering benefits to their members. The paper concludes that what poor farmers want is the combination of these five capabilities and argues that a more comprehensive redefinition of skills and learning for the rural poor is needed that responds to this demand.

Preparing Groups of Poor Farmers for Market Engagement: Five Key Skill Sets

This is the second of two chapters that present the case for a portfolio of basic skills to prepare poor farmers for market engagement. This type of skill formation receives little attention in the current debate about how to overcome wealth-differentiated barriers to market entry in poor societies. The chapter discusses the findings of a multi-country Study Tour of three countries, Uganda, India, and Bolivia, organized by the Catholic Relief Services (CRS), a relief and development agency, and the Rural Innovation Institute (RII) of the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), an international research organization to explore how their support to farmer groups could be improved and expanded to reach more of the rural poor and prepare them for agro-enterprise development. The Study Tour discovered that a common feature of the farmer groups visited was a drive to acquire and combine five basic “skill sets” that even the poorest groups were incorporating. The observed skill sets were classified as follows: (1) group management; (2) financial skills (usually developed through participation in internal savings and lending groups); (3) marketing skills; (4) experimentation and innovation skills for accessing new technology; and (5) sustainable production and natural resource management skills. Most groups proactively sought to develop multiple skill sets even in the absence of external support for this purpose. Although no single skill set is new in and of itself, the novel discovery was the expressed demand by farmer groups to combine several skill sets. The Study Tour participants concluded that combining skill sets has considerable promise for improving current group development approaches and preparing farmer groups to engage with markets.

The resilient family farm: supporting agricultural development and rural economic growth.

Introduction The story The task of the family farm Supporting the family farm About the book. Part 1: UNDERSTANDING THE RESILIENT FAMILY FARM 1. Farm families and their social environment Who are the smallholder farm families Their multiple roles The social impact of the issues they face 2. Farm families and their natural environment The importance of farm resources Environmental problems 3. The family farm as an agricultural system The agricultural system Threats and risks Reducing risk Coping with constraints - the big three Elements of agricultural systems Synergy between agriculture and natural resources Agriculture synergy with education, health and microfinance 4. The family farm as an economic system The economic system The elements of the economic system The basic triangle of income generation The outer circle Synergy and stewardship Threats to the system The flow of farm wealth. Part 2: SUPPORTING THE RESILIENT FAMILY FARM 5. Resilient farming: Approaches to farm family support Science and technology Some cardinal rules 6. The ripple effect: Agricultural extension services Spreading success Some cardinal rules 7. Barn-raising: Support for building farm assets The dilemma What can be done? Some cardinal rules 8. Inspiring growth: Developing farm enterprises The dilemma What can be done? Some cardinal rules 9. Going to market: Support in selling farm products The dilemma Some cardinal rules 10. Banking on the family: financial services to farm families The dilemma What can be done? Some cardinal rules 11. Speaking truth to power: Advocacy for the family farm The dilemma What can be done? Some cardinal rules 12. Breaking the rules: The family farm in crisis The dilemma What can be done? Conclusions Glossary Resources About CRS About the authors Index