ASHA & XIM-B to organise a workshop on “markets that empower farmers (and consumers)”

YOU CAN DOWNLOAD THE PROCEEDINGS REPORT OF THE WORKSHOP, INCLUDING LINKS TO PRESENTATIONS AND VIDEOS, HERE.

It is widely acknowledged by civil society groups seeking to improve agricultural livelihoods on the ground, that interventions have to focus on re-casting particular technological approaches (towards low-external-input, low-risk, diversity-based sustainable farming) as well as ensuring remunerative markets for the outputs from farming. It is also well-appreciated that grassroots institutions of farmers, especially the marginalized, are a sustainable means towards such livelihoods improvement.

When it comes to Markets, the current paradigm (which encompasses a general macro-economic policy approach and environment of GDP-led growth, privatization, globalization etc. and specifically, domestic pricing and procurement policies in agriculture, as well as international trade policies/rules) is further contributing to an existing crisis in the farm sector resulting from high-external-input, intensive agriculture. Together, the technological paradigm and the market paradigm end up in unremunerative returns to our farmers, especially the (rainfed) smallholders.

Addressed through strong farmer-led collectives, both production and post-production asymmetries pitted against smallholders today can be changed to improve the livelihoods of farmers (along the entire chain)[1] as initiatives are showing here and there. Markets in this paradigm will have farmers determining a fair and remunerative price for themselves, even as the quality of agricultural produce (diversity, nutrition and safety) will benefit consumers too.

To understand the processes that would create such a paradigm shift better, ASHA (Alliance for Sustainable & Holistic Agriculture) would be organizing a national workshop in collaboration with Xavier’s Institute of Management-Bhubaneswar, to bring together practitioners, activists and academics together onto a joint platform, for cross-learning and for evolving ideas for future work[2]. This is particularly in the context of organic markets, where some experiences of entrepreneurs emerged from the retail end, while some others, mostly of NGOs, from the farm/farmers’ end.

A platform that allows for cross-learning, learning from mistakes and failures, that facilitates field level insights informing academic discourse, that highlights the gaps in understanding what works and what does not, and has all stakeholders engaging in further work, in addition to presenting proposals to the government, is found to be missing at this point of time and this workshop hopes to take initial steps in bridging this gap.

When & Where:

30^th and 31^st of July 2012. Bhubaneswar, XIM-B.

OBJECTIVES OF THE WORKSHOP:
1. To create a sharing/cross-learning platform for many organisations and individuals thinking about social enterprises around markets for organic farmers in particular (farmer-controlled and farmer-owned markets in general), which empower both farmers and consumers, so that different models can be brought to one table for discussion, analysis and cross-learning.

2. To particularly focus on innovations and ‘best practices’ that seemed to have worked in particular enterprises (with the full appreciation that many models are possible) and have ensured surpluses to farmers at various points in the value chain (case studies of such entities/experiences will be shared, briefly) – with academics adding to the practitioners’ experiences.
3. To come up with advocacy proposals so that numerous such efforts get the support of governments in appropriate forms.

WHO?

It is often seen that academics are not engaging enough on newer business models which represent a paradigmatic shift, especially in the organic markets context. Apart from academics in different business/management schools around the country, the participants of the workshop would be:

• practitioners who have evolved small-scale retail models of farmers and consumers coming directly onto one platform (Vishmukt Dukaan in Wardha, reStore in Chennai, Organic Bazaar in Aurangabad/Trivandrum, Farmers’ Market in Mumbai etc.),

• ones that have created rural-rural markets with safe food (Navajyoti Cooperative, DDS’ sangam market, Indira Kranthi Patham’s procurement and food security credit line initiative),

• ones who have created replicable models in terms of strong farmers’ institutions that run chain outlets or export business or have created brands (Maha Gujarat Agri-Cotton Producer Company Ltd which does not rely only on organic produce but has hundreds of farmers’ malls, Chetna Organic Producers Company Ltd, Morarka Foundation/Morarka Organic etc.) in a profitable enterprise even if they don’t incorporate all the components of an ‘ideal’ market,

• experts or officials who can make presentations on some innovative schemes that already exist in the government (whether it is NABARD’s producer company or modified NAIS, or warehouse receipt scheme, or small farmer agri-business consortium’s projects etc.), to see how organic entrepreneurs can tap into them.

Questions to be explored will include: how replicable are these models? What can others learn and incorporate in terms of cross-learning? What can we learn from the failures of several initiatives? What does the government have to do to support a multitude of diverse models around the country?

Structure:
The workshop would be for 2 days, amongst 50-55 participants. The detailed structure is given below. It is expected that the following components can be teased out clearly: Present scenario; alternate markets with ‘ideals’ – replicability and way forward; production and quality issues including certification; cost and pricing issues; supply chain issues; retail management and distribution including consumer awareness and demand issues; institutional issues; policy issues. As a tangible outcome from these sessions, it is expected that we can evolve advocacy proposals to be taken to the government on what it should do to support such organic markets.