April 12, 2015Luke A. Colavito, PhD, IDE Nepal, Country Director

Education for Agricultural Commercialization iDE Nepal Experience, Needs, and Observations

Linking Transformative Teachingwith Sustainable Workforce Development

Presentation Overview Agricultural

Commercialization Context and Approach

Climate Change Thoughts on Agriculture

Education Needs Direct Estimate iDE

program Agricultural educational needs

Areas iDE could contribute to education for agriculture

Multiple Use Water System (MUS)designed to provide water fordomestic and agriculture use

Agriculture - Weak Market Context

Nepal agriculture is highly subsistence, only 13% of agricultural produce is marketed

Private sector present mostly in district capitals

Most private companies in agriculture are small, lack technical staff, and function as distributors of imported inputs

Nepal has very good markets for high value commodities but there is a basic market failure constraining private investment: Free rider problem: company A organizes

and trains farmers, but companies B,C,D reap returns

Commercial Pocket Approach

Over the last 10 years iDE with partners especially CEAPRED has developed an approach to commercialize smallholder agriculture

Key features are creating sufficient volume of production in a rural community to establish: A community managed collection / processing

centre for market access (which requires mangers/staff)

Local Service Providers marketing inputs, equipment, and giving embedded training (need training!)

iDE has developed more than 200 commercial pockets serving over 150,000 HHs

Approach mainstreamed by USAID/donors/GON Applies across subsectors!

Collection / Processing Centers (CC)

100 to 1,000 HHs organised in groups of 20 HHs

Farmers elect a Marketing and Planning Committee (MPC) to establish and manage a collection centre. The MPC includes/is advised by input suppliers, traders, GON extension, and other stakeholders

The MPC selects entrepreneur(s) to manage the CC

Over time, many CC become cooperatives Services provided include: marketing,

detailed crop calendars, technical support, inputs, credit, linkage to government services, advocacy…

CCs are a Public Private Partnership approach

Collection Centres!

Sustainable Farmer Organization

Our key entry point is the development of sustainable farmer organisation

Farmer organisation built and maintained not by project resources but by management of an economic opportunity (crop production, essential oil processing, community forestry management, other)

Commercial pockets make possible application of HH-level and community-level

resilient agriculture technologies

USAID Initiative for Climate Change Adaptation (ICCA) project.Drip saves water and increases yields!

250,000 Micro Irrigation Systems Sold

Over 250 Multiple Use Water Systems covering more than 50,000 people

Working with IWMI and GON to Institutionalize the MUS Approach. IWMI study shows MUS benefit/cost is 11 to 1!

IPM Packages using safe bio-agentsUSAID IPM Innovation Lab with NARC/DOA

USAID Administrator Dr. Shah meeting a local service provider trained by IPM Lab marketing IPM bio-agents for Agricare Pvt. Ltd.

Commercial pockets enable climate adaptation

interventions and planning

Climate Change AdaptionCommercial pocket farmer organisation: Facilitates Local Adaption Plans of Action (LAPA) Promotes resilient practices through crop

calendars Provides mechanism for pest/disease

management Allows local assessment of climate change

impacts and enables farmers to seek solutions

Facilitates/provides access to finance and insurance

Reduces transaction costs of information to smallholders Piloting use of collection centres using SMS to

provide actionable information to their members

Important for Climate Change/Adaption in education!

Thoughts on Agriculture Education Needs

Project / Public sector: higher degrees / vocational degrees / certifications (Key areas: agri-business, agriculture engineering, IPM/plant protection, irrigation, micro-irrigation, coop management / social mobilization, finance/insurance)

Private Sector (primarily focused on input/equip supply): Community Business Facilitator (CBF, sales agent) certificate

or 2 year degree (large numbers) Input/equipment supply chain needs technical staff to train

and manage sales agents (BSc/MSc) Key subsectors: Horticulture/spices, essential

oils/NTFPs, livestock, coffee, tea, fisheries, and conservation agriculture (mechanization)

Need business planning/budgeting/marketing skills!

Estimate of iDE Program Education Needs

Over the next 5 years in the USAID Pahal, DFID Anukulan BRACED and other projects iDE will be working with about 400,000 smallholder HHs

Project Staff: 100+ BSc/Advanced Degrees, 400 CTEVT 2 year, SLC/Certificates/training 800 mobilizers

Private Sector: 40 BSc/Advanced, 2,000+ Community Business Facilitators (mix of 2 year / certificates), nursery operators 4,000 (certificates)

Applied Approach at Nat Level: 1,400 BSc+, 15,000 CTEVT 2 year, 60,000 (certificates)

Improved training for degree and non-degree people from USAID Innovate, Universities, and CTEVT would greatly increase impact!

Areas where iDE Could Help Prioritizing practical agricultural educational

needs Assisting for practical curriculum supporting

agricultural commercialization including certificate programs (CBFs, nurseries)

Specific technical areas: micro irrigation/water resource development, IPM, horticulture, business planning / agriculture marketing, coop development, essential oil development

Follow-up: (1) iDE happy to host a field based scoping team with innovate/stakeholders to assess education needs and improve the CBF training and look at CTEVT certification (2) Working with Innovate/stakeholders for a focused workshop on the scoping study findings

Education is key for Agricultural

Commercialization in Nepal!

Photos by Bimala Rai Colavito, iDE Volunteer

THANK

YOU!!!