Winifred Mailu, an inclusive market advisor at Christian Aid.
By Fiona Imbali
Development of an inclusive market for Kenyan farmers continues to be an elusive quest due to a myriad of challenges. Small-scale farmers comprise a majority of farmers in the country while lack of policies that support smallholder businesses makes it complex for them to take advantage of economies of scale. This has consequently led to production of low quantities of produce whose quality is also below par due to inefficient and poor quality input. Lack of proper production and management skills exacerbates the situation.
A market system has multiple players from the private sector; government; membership organizations; informal networks as well as civil society which play a supporting systems role in improving market access. These players enable financing whilst using advocacy to change systems that inhibit farmer’s growth. Nevertheless lack of effective rules governing and shaping policies continues to block farmer’s from influencing markets, policy and legislation decisions.
Benard Mwinzi addressing Farmer Resource Persons at JJ McCarthy Centre.
Ms.Winifred Mailu an advisor on inclusive markets at Christian Aid notes that most farmers lack proper understanding of the workings of a market system which has multiple functions with the core being the value-chain. This is the point of transaction relating to delivery of goods and services and the inter-face between consumer and supplier. Increased inequality is observed where farmers gain the least from their produce, a situation worsened by middle men taking advantage of farmer’s lack of knowledge. Take for instance a milk production value – chain where a farmer sells one litre of unprocessed milk at Kshs 35.
During processing and packaging the cost goes up to Kshs 65/l while the final retailed product in the supermarkets costs Kshs 80/l. The middle man, processors and retailers end up earning more than double of what the farmer gets.
Market development requires support from all stakeholders to ensure availability of income, goods and services to alleviate poverty. Stakeholders seeking to support farmers could ensure that farmer organisations; cooperatives and unions are strengtherned through capacity-building. With interventions such as facilitating inputs and support to access of markets where organisations facilitate good quality products; post harvest management; bulking; provision of technologies; irrigation processes and value-addition would ensure increased production processes, farmers growth and an inclusive market.
Ms. Mailu notes that some farmers adopt initiatives whose viability is uncertain. Mapping she argues is key in a market system as it determines the viability of produce. It enables farmers to understand processes; know the availability of markets and if they can afford to meet the demand to minimize on losses incurred. “Mapping is critical for farmers if they want to engage fully in the value-chain as this enables them to understand market dynamics: know if there are sufficient distributors; processors; exporters or importers; extensions services; transportations services as well as credit providers.” Selecting a value-chain and engaging in markets requires the understanding of the importance of having volumes of the produce while also ensuring that there is sufficient information on target beneficiaries.
Value-chain selection requires that farmer’s groups and other actors involved have entrepreneurial capacity to ensure quality produce; promote environmental sustainability especially in light of the erratic climate. Farmer’s activities should also be in line with national and regional strategies that ensure social and gender inclusion initiatives. “Farmers should look for unmet demand likely to increase their income and wealth and which also has growth potential with a ready market and continued competitiveness of the subsector. There should also be opportunities for forward and backward linkages between large and small enterpriseses whose activities should provide oppportunities for employment as the sector grows,” notes Ms. Mailu.
Farmer Resource Persons listening keenly.
For instance when farmers want to engage in honey-production chain, they are required to understand what specific inputs they will require for the process; the cultivation process; production processes; collection points; wholesale or retail marketing distribution; traders and consumers. Ms. Mailu notes that Kenyan honey is of low quality in comparison to other East African countries due to poor harvetsing techniques as farmers still use the smoking method.
Farmers therefore need to understand the latest market trends for quality production of honey.
Lack of business development services for farmers leads to low farm productivity and huge post-harvest losses. A business enabling environment would ensure support of economic justice in market systems where there are enforced laws and standards as well as farmer’s participation. Currently, there’s an unpredictable policy and legal environment where most farmers conduct transactions informally without contracts and thus being taken advantage of by middlemen and this has also contributed to unstable pricing. Without an agreement it’s impossible to sue and get their rightful dues.
Farmers are also largely ineffective in ensuring value addition for their produce as very few are trained on the market requirements; have low access to financial services or financially tailored products for agriculture. Poor organization by most farmers has ensured that farmer groups are fragmented and therefore cannot take advantage of production of large volumes of produce which would be much profitable. Inadequately trained and qualified extension officers and dependence on rain-fed agriculture leads to fluctuations in supply contributing to an elusive inclusive market system.
Participants listening keenly to the presentation.
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