Commodity development
interventions in LIVES
Dirk Hoekstra
LIVES Project Launch Workshop
Addis Ababa, 22 January 2013

Selected farmer produced
commodities
• Livestock
– Milk/local butter – dairy
– Live animals – large and small ruminants
– Eggs/broilers – poultry
– Honey (raw, semi processed) - apiculture
• Irrigated agriculture
– Vegetables
– Fruits
– Fodder (linked to livestock)

Producers and markets
• Producers
– Rural small scale mixed crop livestock farms (all products)
– Rural specialized farms (live animals, apiculture, fruits and
vegetables)
– Urban/peri-urban speciliased farms (fluid milk, poultry)
• Markets
– Urban - processed and unprocessed raw products
– Rural – mostly unprocessed and farm processed products
– Export – processed and unprocessed products

Focus of the project
• Interventions for farmers and small and
medium scale agri-business enterprise
level in clusters of districts
• Linkages with federal/regional
agribusiness (projects) for supply of inputs
and services and sale of products
• Linkages with federal/regional service
providers for information and quality
control

Project focus
Farmers
AB SP
Fed/reg
Agri business
AB AB AB
Service
districts SP providers
F F F

Potential value chain intervention
• Production interventions
• Input and service supply interventions
• Processing marketing intervention

Production interventions
• Increasing production, productivity and income of
livestock and irrigated crop commodities
– Distinguish between different farm types/systems and
production
– Improved breeds/varieties
– Improved crop/livestock husbandry practices,
including use of improved inputs/equipment,
planting schedules, post harvest, quality
– Increased business size with help of credit – animals,
irrigated crops
– Increased percentage of high value commodities in
irrigation schemes

Input/service supply interventions
• Improved production of animals and crops
by individual farmers and communities
– Animals/insects (bee colonies, hatchery -
pullets multiplication, community breeding
small ruminants)
– Fruit nurseries
– Vegetable seed/seedling producers
– Fodder

Input/service supply interventions
• Improved services by public & private
sector (including cooperatives)
– Animal and crop health services by private and public
sector using thermo stable vaccines, improved
diagnostic equipment
– Reproduction of large ruminants using hormone
assisted mass insemination, private sector
involvement
– Water management in schemes by cooperatives and
water user associations through business oriented
practices
– Pump repair services

Input/service supply interventions
• Linkages between federal/regional agri-
business with village/district/zonal level agri-
businesses
– Irrigation equipment
– Veterinary drugs
– Agro-chemicals
• Linkages between federal/regional level
suppliers of improved breeds and varieties
with District level multipliers
– Certification of producers of seed/seedlings

Processing and marketing
interventions
• Improved marketing and processing of crop
and livestock products by district/zonal level
cooperatives and private entrepreneurs
– Introduction small scale processing equipment
– Bulking produce for marketing
– Formation of collective marketing structures for
prodcuers (formal and informal)
– Contract farming

Processing and marketing
interventions
• Linkages between federal/regional agri-
businesses with district level processors and
traders
– Export abattoir
– Commercial honey processors
– Fruit and vegetable whole sale traders/producers
• Linkages between district/village level service
providers and federal level service institutions
– Livestock and crop prices – EXC and LINK
– Information – Associations (horticulture, apiculture,
dairy) and projects
– Quality – Bureau of Quality and Standards, EIAR

Gender in vc development
• Greater involvement of women (female headed HH,
married women) in value chain development
– Involvement in capacity development and knowledge
management activities
– Targeting women for commodities and specific vc
interventions
• Butter in rural systems - production
• Poultry – egg/broiler production, pullet
• Small ruminants - production
• Fruits – seedling production
– Use of women friendly technologies (modern hives,
mechanized/conservation tillage)
– Women involvement in cooperative structure and water user
groups

Environment in vc development
• Assessment of environmental impact and
mitigating measures and synergies
– Use of crop residues for fodder – declining soil fertility –
crop rotation, use of manure
– Use of agricultural chemicals - integrated pest
management, awareness creation
– Zoonotic diseases in intensive livestock systems –
awareness creation, zoning
– Climate effect – methane – increased
production/animal
– Grazing area development synergy with apiculture and
down stream irrigation

Thank You!
www.lives-ethiopia.org