July 2018 - African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States...help smallholders to use recommended production techniques and inputs for more income. This type of service provision to

Newsletter N° 4 July 2018

A major objective of the “New Approach

to ACP Group Support to Agricultural Value

Chains” is to transform and modernize ACP ag-

riculture. ACP youth has a major role to play in

this regard. And agriculture in ACP countries

provides fertile ground, despite weighty con-

straints, for youth employment and empower-

ment. Thus, it is estimated that 47% of African

rural youth works in agriculture (Gallup, 2010).

In the Caribbean and the Pacific, with the me-

dian age of the farmer population well above

55, young hands and brains are clearly needed.

To attract and anchor ACP youth in agricultural

producing areas, the constraints that they face

must be addressed, and the jobs on offer

should be remunerative and attractive.

Provision of technical and business ser-

vices by young professionals to small family

farms illustrates opportunities for youth in agri-

culture. The article describing this aspect of

GIZ’s contribution to implementation of the

ACP-EU Commodities Programme (CP) also ex-

plains how young service providers in West Af-

rica are earning a decent living while assisting

cocoa farmers in getting higher yields and in-

comes. Being more receptive to new tech-

niques and technologies, the young technical

business service providers transfer these to

their clients.

Alongside limited access to knowledge,

information, and to land, or poor linkages with

markets, access to finance has been identified

as one of the main obstacles to youth partici-

Technical Business Services

for Cocoa Farmers Generate

Jobs for Youth (GIZ)

Technical business services can

generate youth employment and make

farming more competitive and attractive.

Young professional service providers can

help smallholders to use recommended

production techniques and inputs for more

income.

This type of service provision to cocoa

farmers, and in agriculture in general, is a

very recent development in West Africa.

Most young rural professionals still lack the

expertise, skills and financial resources to

develop targeted and economically viable

business services required by cocoa

smallholders and which earn providers

sufficient income throughout the year too.

For some technical services, lack of

appropriate technology is also an issue.

As part of its activities in implementing

the Cocoa Food Link Programme (CFLP), GIZ

has partnered with private partners to bring

technical business services to cocoa small

holders.

175 young service providers have been

qualified.

As at mid-2018, they have served over

31,000 cocoa smallholders in Côte

d’Ivoire, Ghana and Togo.

E D I T O R I A L

(To be continued on page 2)

ACP-EU COMMODITIES

PROGRAMME

2

A C P - E U C O M M O D I T I E S P R O G R A M M E

The Cocoa-Food Link Programme (CFLP) is

co-funded by the EU as part of the ACP-EU

Commodities Programme since end 2014. CFLP

is implemented through the Sustainable

Smallholder Agri-Business Programme (SSAB)

commissioned by the German Federal Ministry

for Economic Cooperation and Development

(BMZ).

In the case of cocoa production, examples

of technical business services comprise GPS

measurement of plots, motorized pruning,

spraying of insecticides or fungicides, cleaning

of farms, cocoa harvesting and pod breaking.

These activities generate employment and

income for the youth who act as providers.

Attractiveness of these employments rise where

motorized equipment is used. On top of this, the

farmer clients receive services and quality

inputs geared towards higher yields and higher

incomes on existing farms. The intensification

strategy building on technical services avoids

deforestation by land expansion at low

productivity levels. Embedded in businesses of

agro-dealers, producer organizations and/or off-

takers, technical business services constitute a

significant opportunity for youth employment in

rural areas.

pation in agriculture (IFAD and FAO, 2011).

Due to their lack of collateral and financial lit-

eracy, among other reasons, rural youth does

not represent an attractive customer group

for financial service providers.

The article on “inclusive financial instru-

ments” outline how different approaches are

being harnessed by FAO under the ACP-EU CP

to go over such obstacles. The approaches

range from technical assistance to financial

institutions, to financial literacy activities,

training in agricultural finance and risks, or

development of tailored financial products.

While not restricted to youth, the Pacific

case study implemented by the SPC shows

the importance of linkages to markets for suc-

cessful development of small producers, even

when remotely located. Sales agreements

with bigger players and emphasis on quality

have facilitated such success where other

small producers failed.

Intra-value chain linkages is also the

essence of the article outlining CARDI and ITC

support to Caribbean coconut actors. Linking

producers and processors to regional and in-

ternational experts contribute to the updating

of planting and production techniques, disease

diagnosis and farm/firm management.

But do not take my word for it! Please

read the enclosed articles and discover for

yourself how our stakeholders and partners

are collaborating and innovating to transform

ACP agriculture!

Viwanou GNASSOUNOU

Assistant Secretary General

Sustainable Economic Development

and Trade

(From page 1)


Pruning of cocoa trees

3


The modes of delivery are customized

to the specific needs, opportunities and

capacities of partners. The following service

delivery models have been put into practice:

Independent service providers or

employees of Business Service

Centres (BSC) in Côte d’Ivoire

Farmer-based organisations in Togo

Rural Service Centres (RSC) providers

of BSC in Ghana

In addition to the lessons specific to

each country, the following more general

lessons can be drawn from the CFLP

experience with technical business services:

The services offered need to part of a

service package developed on the

basis of sound economic analysis, and

need to provide sufficient and stable

living income along the year for the

service provider and family.

Technical services do not necessarily

create net profits for the involved

smallholders; increased production

costs may outweigh the additional

profits from additional yields. Prices

can drop as a consequence of

increased productivity.

Introducing technical service at large

scale allows purchase of equipment

and inputs in bulk, thus reducing the

costs for these items.

Strong business linkages between

hosts of technical business services,

input suppliers as well as equipment

dealers are essential to ensure timely

availability of inputs and equipment.

Technical business services have an

impact on employment in rural areas

(positive or negative) and by

influencing the yields also on prices.

Solid contracting modalities with

service providers are essential,

including reporting obligations; totally

independent providers are difficult to

manage.

Thorough monitoring and support of

providers by marketing/branding them

in the take-off stage is useful to trigger

market demand by the customers.

The services impact the entire

production model of the cocoa

smallholder. Side effects could for

example include resorting to children

for breaking of cocoa pods if the yields

increase significantly, or rendering

spraying service providers jobless if

proper pruning of trees reduces the

infestation with black pod disease.

RSC service providers during technical training session

(From page 2)

4



Strengthening access to

inclusive financial

instruments for small

farmers engaged in the roots

and tubers sectors (FAO)

The provision of and access to

investment and working capital are major

issues for small farmers and processors of

the Roots & Tubers (R&T) industry in Sub-

Saharan Africa. Since 2014, with support

from the ACP-EU Commodities Programme,

the FAO African Roots and Tubers Project

(ART) is adopting a value chain finance

approach to increase access to finance and

investment opportunities for actors operating

in the roots and tubers value chains.

To properly tackle the issue of access

to finance in Benin, Cameroon, Ghana, Côte

d'Ivoire, Malawi, Uganda and Rwanda, the

ART project identified relevant gaps,

constraints and opportunities by carrying out

a series of analyses of the demand and

supply of financial services within specific

R&T value chains for each country. The

results of these assessments helped to put in

place tailored activities related to provision

and access to financial services.

Targeting Financial Provision

As at mid-2018, the ART project

provided technical assistance to over 60

financial institutions on risk assessments,

design investment strategies and partners’

identification to provide customized financial

services to farmers, cooperative, processors

and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

National events on Agricultural Value Chain

Finance took place in all the 7 countries

covered by the project, and a regional lesson

-sharing workshop was organized during

the African Microfinance Week, held in

Addis Ababa on October 2017. In addition,

the rising need for small actors to access

risk financing services, such as crop

insurances, resulted in some 65

stakeholders trained in the area of

Agricultural and Climate Risk Financing.

Targeting Financial Access

In parallel, financial literacy and

awareness- raising activities on financial

products have been organized for small

value chain actors along with capacity

building of farmers and processors in

business and financial management through

Farmer Field Schools (FFS), digital

information, and platforms at community

level. These initiatives increase producers’

and processors’ capacity to mobilize

financial resources by reducing the existing

information gaps to increase access to such

services.

Members of a potato cooperative enabled to access loans as result of the project activities in Rwanda ©FAO/Margherita Bavagnoli

5


Results

The project reached over 70 MFIs

and FIs, while 175 stakeholders have also

been linked to be able to provide/access

tailored agricultural insurance products.

The support of FAO activities by the ACP-

EU funding further resulted in 375 small

loans collectively secured by farmers,

cooperatives and traders from

microfinance providers and the

commercial banks. In addition, in Rwanda

alone, 18,000 USD have been saved by

small actors under FFS schemes. In

Uganda, fast-track access to small loans

to cover short-term capital flows on

farms, or for farmers with no land or

asset collateral, is now possible due to

the establishment of 60 savings and

credit schemes that have amassed equity

of 20,790 USD. Furthermore, 2 new

tailored financial products for cassava

and potatoes were developed with the

project’s support. A unique insurance

product for potato farmers is also being

developed with the Uganda Agribusiness

Alliance and the Insurance Consortium.

The findings of the country

analyses, the recommendations made at

the regional lesson-sharing workshop

during the African Microfinance Week in

2017, as well as the success stories

collected from the countries, have been

synthesized in a broader study on

“Potential solutions for unlocking

investments in small agribusinesses with

growth potential.” The promotion of

success cases in other countries

stimulated cross-countries knowledge

sharing visits. Lastly, a series of

partnerships have been established with

P l at form for Agr i cu l tu ra l R i sk

Management (PARM) - IFAD, World Food

Programme (WFP), PULA and Acre Africa

as well as with other divisions and

projects in FAO, to improve the quantity

and quality of the services available

while enriching the project’s visibility at

global level.

(From page 4)

6


“One of the great things about partici-

pating in the study of our value chain is that

we’ve been able to show our farmers that if

they sell their husked coconuts to us, they

are actually getting paid a lot more than if

they extract the copra and sell that” Teri-

kano explained.

The study helped to develop new in-

sights and new connections. An example of

linkages is that BVCO has obtained agree-

ment for on-going sales of oil to Essence of

Fiji, contributing to increase sales by 30 per-

cent. It is also expected that the study will

help BVCO to source new markets and pri-

vate investment as well as industry develop-

ment support by documenting the current

business case.

Other barriers to expansion are also

being addressed. The road to the factory on

the island has been recently improved by

the Rabi Council. The Fijian Ministry of

With ACP and EU Sup-

port, CIDP helps remote pro-

ducers achieve market share

against all odds (SPC)

In the Pacific, many small virgin

coconut oil enterprises have been promoted

as viable village-scale enterprises. However,

several have failed by not having adequate

connections to end-markets; not being of

sufficient scale to achieve the throughput of

product required for adequate returns on in-

vestment; and struggling to achieve low final

moisture contents in their oils (<1 per cent).

Launched in 2014 by Terikano Takesau

to improve opportunities for her Banaba peo-

ple living on Fiji’s Rabi Island, Banaban Vir-

gin Coconut Oil (BVCO) has managed to stay

in business through a combination of hard

work, community cohesion and support from

partners.

In the early days, Terikano toured the

island and spoke to the different village as-

sociations. She explained how they could

harvest and sell coconuts to BVCO, use the

by-products to make handicrafts, weave and

sell baskets to assist in transporting coco-

nuts by boat around the island to the fac-

tory.

Another key contributor to the success,

were the results of a market analysis and

value chain study of the BVCO value chain

commissioned by the Coconut Industry De-

velopment for the Pacific (CIDP) programme.

This programme is managed by the Pacific

Community (SPC) as part of the EU-funded

ACP-EU Commodities Programme. The study

is being used as a model for the many small

virgin coconut oil businesses in operation

across the Pacific.

Terikano Takesau, founder - Banaban

Virgin Coconut Oil

Photo credit - D. Dore


7


Sharing best practices to

sharpen competitiveness of Car-

ibbean Coconut Industry (ITC/

CARDI)

On the 20th of June 2018, the International

Trade Centre (ITC) and the Caribbean Agricultural

Research & Development Institute (CARDI) held an

“International Coconuts Conference” in Santo Do-

mingo, in the Dominican Republic, under the aegis

of the EU funded ACP-EU Commodities Programme.

The said programme aims to strengthen the com-

petitiveness of the coconut sector in the Caribbean

and increase economic opportunities for small-

holder farmers and SMEs in the region.

Hosted by the Junta Agroempresarial Domini-

cana (JAD), with the support of partners such as

the Ministry of Agriculture, Lead Firms - Grupo

Rica, Goya and Tropijugos - and the Delegation of

the European Union to the Dominican Republic, the

conference gathered stakeholders from the region’s

coconut sector, as well as international experts

from CIRAD, Tetra Pak, the Scientific Research

Centre in Yucatan, Mexico, Jamaica’s Coconut In-

dustry Board, and from Farmers Community Devel-

opment Foundation International (Philippines).


Quality is Key

The sun-drying process used by

Banaban Virgin Coconut Oil VCO makes

the difference in their oils. Oil is dried

for a period of up to two weeks to

ensure that the moisture content is

almost zero. Low moisture content

contributes to increasing the shelf-life of

their products and sets it apart from

some other virgin coconut oil products.

The time taken to properly dry the oils is

Agriculture has assisted with a new genera-

tor to enable the factory to run its proces-

sors for a full day. Ultimately the factory

hopes to use solar power, to avoid the high

cost of fuel for the generator. Following the

results of the value chain study, CIDP has

also provided technical assistance to assist

in testing and improving Banaban Virgin

Coconut Oil’s products, factory design and

factory layout.

The growth of Banaban Virgin Coconut

Oil is directly benefitting the Banaba people.

“The sale of one sack of coconuts makes a

big difference to families on the island. With

the $15 they can buy cooking items, or

travel over to Savusavu to buy clothes, and

a treat for the children.”

Factory bottling, and sun-drying

Photo credit - Lavinia Kaumaitotoya, PIFON & Mark

Sheehy, Koka Siga

Mr. Osmar C. Benítez, Minister for Agriculture in the

Dominican Republic highlighting the importance of

coconut production in the country

(From page 6)

8


(From page 7)


A joint initiative

Implemented by

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE ACP-EU COMMODITIES PROGRAMME, GO TO:

http://www.acp.int/content/acp-eu-commodities-programme

ACP Secretariat – Avenue Georges Henri 451, B - 1200 - Brussels, Belgium

email : [email protected]

Tel: +32 2 743 06 00

Fax: +32 2 735 55 73

This publication is an initiative of the ACP Secretariat funded by the European Union . Its content is the sole responsibility of the technical

assistance team.

The event served as a platform for pres-

entations and discussions on a well-rounded

selection of subjects around coconut produc-

tion, processing, marketing, packaging and

trade. Structured along the lines of the

“Alliance for Action” methodology (see News-

letter No 1), it contributed to connecting inter-

national and regional experts with stake-

holders from across the coconut value chain to

establish strategic linkages and share informa-

tion and experiences.

Participants learnt of success stories

from the sector in other countries or regions

as a result of the Alliances for Action interven-

tions, and how these could be applied to their

own circumstances. They were updated as re-

gards scientific planting techniques, disease

diagnosis and management, including remedy

and prevention. More generally, they gained

insights on current opportunities and threats in

the coconut industry, at both international and

regional levels.

The conference was followed by two days

of field visits. During the visits, the confer-

ence’s panel of international experts met with

key field actors including coconut lead farm-

ers, processors, and support institutions, in

Alliance areas such as Nagua, Sánchez and

Villa Altagracia. This was an opportunity for a

hands-on demonstration of the points dis-

cussed at the conference. The meetings

took place at various coconut lead farms

and processing facilities to provide diagno-

ses on existing pest and diseases, discuss

possible remedies and prevention meas-

ures, value addition of coconut products

and generally share both international and

local best practices on coconut production,

marketing and trade.

Both the international panel of ex-

perts and the farmer communities from the

region took home precious insights and in-

formation that will contribute to imple-

menting more effective work practices and

achieving better results.

Dr. Wayne Mayrie, from Coconut Industry Board of

Jamaica and Chairperson of NSP, explaining different

causes and solutions of pest and diseases

Documents

July 2018 - African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States...help smallholders to use recommended production techniques and inputs for more income. This type of service provision to