GOOD PRACTICES IN BUILDING RURAL DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTIONS AND PRODUCER ORGANIZATIONS
1. GOOD PRACTICES IN BUILDING RURAL DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTIONS AND PRODUCER ORGANIZATIONS: HOW TO EMPOWER SMALL-SCALE PRODUCERS TO INCREASE FOOD SECURITY
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4. Why are we looking at rural institutions and producer organizations? They play a critical role in overcoming these constraints
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Editor's Notes
1.- The Purpose of the publication Background and Objective: In June 2008, the real prices of basic foods reached their highest levels generating a global food insecurity crisis. The high food prices, and the possibility that they might persist, seemed like a great opportunity for small producers. However as the FAO State of Agricultural Commodity Markets affirms: ‘‘High prices have encouraged an expansion in global production, although this supply response was concentrated mostly in developed countries and among developing countries, Brazil, China and India. With the exception of these three, production has actually fallen between 2007 and 2008 in developing countries. It is clear therefore that high food prices were not an opportunity for the majority of poor farmers in developing countries: their supply response was limited in 2007 and has been virtually zero in 2008’ (FAO, 2009e, 23). This is a clear indication that small producers in developing countries are not in conditions to meet the demand and draw benefits from local, national and global markets. This is partly (largely) due to weak rural institutions and organizations. The objective of this publication is to review and present lessons from grassroots institutions and organizations that have improved small rural producers’ livelihoods by enhancing their capacity to manage natural resources in a sustainable way, access markets, information and knowledge and participate in policy making. In brief, there were many missed opportunities by smallholder producers and smallholder producers were further hindered from “taking’’ these opportunities because of market and policy failures
Small-scale producers are able to make choices and seize new economic opportunities to improve their livelihoods and food security when they have access to natural resources, productive assets and markets, information and knowledge, and participate in the policy making process. Based on cases from the field, the first section of this publication shows that, by collaborating voluntarily in pursuit of a common group goal within their organizations and building linkages with public and private actors within institutional arrangements, men and women small-scale producers are able to access the productive assets they need to expand their capacities, to seize economic opportunities, and to participate in policy making. Good practices Here we present the main constraints and some of the main innovations, the publication goes into detail on these. Here we present them in a summary version to give you an overview.
This publication suggests that efficiency and sustainability of rural organizations are based on: the extent and the quality of relationships that small producers develop: Bonding: among themselves within organizations - intra-group relations Bridging: between organizations within apex organizations - inter-group relations Linking: with market actors and policy makers within institutional arrangements - extra-group relations The inter-actions between the three relationships: bonding, bridging and linking. The three relationships and their different inter-actions together form an institutional and organizational building process.
1.- The Purpose of the publication Background and Objective: In June 2008, the real prices of basic foods reached their highest levels generating a global food insecurity crisis. The high food prices, and the possibility that they might persist, seemed like a great opportunity for small producers. However as the FAO State of Agricultural Commodity Markets affirms: ‘‘High prices have encouraged an expansion in global production, although this supply response was concentrated mostly in developed countries and among developing countries, Brazil, China and India. With the exception of these three, production has actually fallen between 2007 and 2008 in developing countries. It is clear therefore that high food prices were not an opportunity for the majority of poor farmers in developing countries: their supply response was limited in 2007 and has been virtually zero in 2008’ (FAO, 2009e, 23). This is a clear indication that small producers in developing countries are not in conditions to meet the demand and draw benefits from local, national and global markets. This is partly (largely) due to weak rural institutions and organizations. The objective of this publication is to review and present lessons from institutions and organizations that have improved small rural producers’ livelihoods by enhancing their capacity to manage natural resources in a sustainable way, access markets, information and knowledge and participate in policy making. In brief, there were many missed opportunities by smallholder producers and smallholder producers were further hindered from “taking’’ these opportunities because of market and policy failures