Without an understanding of different knowledge levels, it becomes difficult for farmers to translate their commodities into goods and services
Charles Dhewa
African agriculture is more complex than most people think. For instance, intermediaries have been part and parcel of Zimbabwean agriculture for generations. The symbiotic relationship between farmers and middlemen who understand the market is one of the reasons why smallholder agriculture has remained resilient.
That is why it is important for value chain actors to identify and make sense of different knowledge levels within agricultural and rural ecosystems. Without an understanding of different knowledge levels, it becomes difficult for farmers to translate their commodities into goods and services. Ultimately the whole pattern will create room for middlemen or intermediaries who are not progressive. Blending pricing and valuation methods
A major bone of contention in most rural farming communities is determining the correct value and price of a particular commodity. Modern commerce is yet to figure out how to accurately address this important issue. For example, there is no clear pricing mechanism that can guide value chain actors in exchanging crops with livestock (maize versus chickens). While formal ways of selling emphasise weight in the form of kilograms, local knowledge rely on human senses like seeing, touching, hearing and feeling to arrive at price and value. By looking at a goat, a buyer may agree to offer a certain amount money. When selling chickens, sometimes the commodity is weighed by hand in order to feel its weight.
On the other hand, abattoirs consider carcass as a beast that will have been skinned without taking into account offals, legs, the head and skin, which all have their own valuable elements, constituting the total value of a beast. While horticulture can be good, in the absence of a ready market, producers end up stuck with the same commodities (vegetables, tomatoes, etc). A critical challenge is that most rural areas do not have cooling facilities for prolonging the shelf life of perishable commodities. Drying vegetables has its own limitations as well.
Unreachable markets are as good as not available
Even if farmers may receive market information on time, small volumes of commodities imply they cannot reach up-markets and end up resorting to local barter deals. Unreachable markets are as good as not available. There are also many cases where some contractors force farmers into commodities that have no market options. For instance, farmers in Buhera recently ended up stuck with sorghum for beer brewing when the contractor failed to buy. There was no other meaningful alternative market for such sorghum. In many communities, some farmers were contracted to produce a different type of sugar beans which they ended up failing to get rid of.
According to livestock farmers in Gwanda, the pricing model for cattle is also not very transparent. Where local auctions are conducted the processes is so fast that most farmers are not sure how a price will have been determined. There is also no room for price negotiations taking into account breed and other favourable factors like milk yield and docility which simplifies use as draught power. In the absence of clear market channels and processes, farmers can do everything right but face different prohibitive rules on the market. A loaf of bread is known to be 90c and that is a price guide. For livestock that does not exist because each buyer or butchery has his/her own scale and preferences.
Beyond dollars and cents
Lessons from rural markets indicate the need to go beyond dollars and cents when formulating business models. Indigenous knowledge, relationships and practices have to be considered when developing inclusive business models. Local institutions like burial societies have their own powerful role in most communities. For instance, in the absence of markets, the burial society end up functioning as a market for local crops and livestock. Members of a burial society become the first consumers around which a Community of Practice is built.
They initiate diversification in which they are encouraged to produce different commodities like tomatoes, vegetables and poultry, for exchanging among group members. Most of these practices happen unconsciously. In most communities, relationships overcome business ethics. Even if a buyer offers a high price, a farmer whose relative is starving will not sell, preferring to give to the relative. This is the power of relationships and kinship ties that have to be seriously considered. On the other hand, how inclusive should a business be in order to stay viable? Including everyone can create a toxic culture. Not everyone wants to be involved in the complexities of running a business.
The power of disadvantages
Evidence from several African informal food markets indicate smallholder farmers and rural communities that are beset by disadvantages have ways of becoming competitive by compensating for their weaknesses. A typical example is how resource-poor smallholder farmers tend to bring more high quality commodities to food markets than large scale farmers who have many advantages like alternative sources of income. In the absence of quick answers, African smallholders force themselves to innovate and solve their own problems. That is why free inputs, under whatever name, may not be a good idea.
The majority of smallholder farmers produce high quality commodities because they pay closer attention to detail, knowing that agricultural commodities are their only source of livelihood. On the other hand, those with alternative sources of income don’t care much about producing competitive products or developing sustainable markets. The urge to overcome weaknesses eMKambo is not suggesting smallholder farmers and poor people should be denied resources as a way of nudging them into radical innovation. However, it seems scarcity of resources has a tendency to strengthen rather than crush smallholder farmers. By working hard to know their disadvantages and taking action to turn them into advantages, many smallholder farmers consider disadvantages a permission to succeed.
More support often paralyses African politicians who masquerade as farmers when all they need are free inputs whose outcome they do not even trace to the market. On the other hand, farmers with disadvantages, beyond just unavailability of inputs, feel a strong need to overcome their weaknesses. However, overwhelming disadvantages can hinder progressive growth. When rural communities fight poverty, malnutrition and socio-economic battles with less sophisticated weapons and tools, they are more likely to lose those battles. On the other hand, it is not enough to have sophisticated weapons in the form of good soils, farming equipment, good road network, access to finance and proximity to the market when one is not able to use those weapons and tools productively.
Smallholder farmers can only exploit their disadvantages if basic amenities and resources are made available first. In most African rural areas, some levels of poverty and squalor make it difficult for poor people to take advantage of their disadvantages. Disadvantages as a platform for creativity and innovation Useful disadvantages like limited resources encourage competition and prevents complacency in ways that foster equitable growth and development. When farming communities clearly identify a disadvantage they will have successfully identified something they do not have that they want.
A degree of individual and collective resilience is necessary in order to take the disadvantage forward. These communities should be encouraged to further develop their strengths rather than waste time working on their weaknesses. That way, they will take stock of what they do well and cultivate critical skills and strengths for further success unlike continue believing they are poor and not able to do anything for themselves.
The power of random and informal conversations should not be underestimated. By telling each other positive stories in the market, smallholder farmers tend to be the answer to many questions bugging their peers for decades. Some farmers hide their disadvantages until a courageous peer with the same challenges tells his/her story. Turning disadvantages to advantages enables farmers and other value chain actors to open their hearts to others. Adverse conditions calibrate their abilities and strengths to inspire them to push against both visible and invisible barriers to success. Disadvantageous circumstances teach them to adapt and embrace flexibility with focus and tenacity. Struggling through disadvantage turns rote to reality.
So, should we continue blaming development organisations for initiating projects? It might be unhelpful to continue blaming development organisations which start projects that become white elephants. The local community should ensure those projects succeed. Every new project is a chance for local people to succeed.
When the NGO goes away, it is creating a strategic disadvantage in the form of withdrawing resources. Rather than exploiting this strategic disadvantage and move forward, most communities go back to their original situation. Usually people outside the beneficiary group, who are naturally curious and innovative, are the ones who quietly copy and innovate. Metal fabricators are an example of people who take advantage of strategic disadvantage. Most of them have not been trained in formal engineering but have taken that lack of training to become creative in turning those disadvantages into tangible outcomes.
Creating stumbling blocks is giving people a chance and permission to succeed. If it was true that more resources always lead to better results, African communities in high rainfall areas and favourable climatic conditions would be the richest and happier than everyone else. Development organisations and policy makers are slowly awakening to the reality that dumping resources on communities does not guarantee a beneficial end. For instance, projects set up over the past decades have not moved poor people out of poverty as expected. It looks like something more is needed.
◆ Charles Dhewa is a proactive knowledge management specialist and chief executive officer of Knowledge Transfer Africa (Pvt) whose flagship eMKambo has a presence in more than 20 agricultural markets in Zimbabwe. He can be contacted on: [email protected] Mobile: +263 774 430 309 / 772 137 717/ 712 737 430.