Publications

The document presents the summaries of the 12 case studies used to illustrate SNV practices which contributed to the writing of the practice brief N° 4 focusing on Gender and Agriculture (see: www.snvworld.org/en/sectors/agriculture/publications/gender-and-agriculture-practice-brief). The summaries provide an insight of the gender issue and what practices SNV implemented to address to this specific constraint. The document also offers you hyperlinks at the end of each summary to enable you read the full intervention.

Rice is the most important staple food in Lao PDR, and is produced in almost all regions of the country. In the past, improved rice production has been a key development task in the support provided to Lao PDR. While there has been a large increase in paddy rice production, less attention has been paid to improving the efficiency of handling and milling. This case highlights the ‘Enhanced Milling Rice Production in Lao PDR’ project (EMRIP) which is designed to address these issues. EMRIP recognizes that the private and public sector both have important roles to play in developing the country’s rice sector. Local rice mills offer the highest leverage in the rice value chain, which is why the project worked with (progressive and socially committed) millers who have strong and mutually respectful relationships with smallholder rice farmers.

The High Value Agriculture – Inclusive Business (IB) Pilot Project (HVA-IB Pilot Project) was initiated by IFAD and SNV in Nepal to test and learn how the Inclusive Business approach developed by SNV in Latin America could make a difference in linking remote farmers to markets in Nepal, a country with an economic climate and a business sector much less developed in most cases compared to Latin America.  These low-income communities have potential to enhance companies‘ profitability by filling one or more important roles: as employees (new labour markets), as producers (new sources of supply), as distributors (new distribution networks), or as consumers (new markets for affordable goods and services). In this pilot, the focus is on BoP as producers and suppliers of products required by companies. 

See also: Inclusive Business at SNV

Cassava is a cash crop that grows predominantly in upland areas of Vietnam with low soil fertility and high poverty rates among farmers. SNV is implementing a project in the north-central region of Vietnam, in which some 10,000 farmers in a cassava growing area have successfully become business partners with starch factories. In this project, the factories are the anchor companies in inclusive business models, taking the lead in the formation of farmer groups and entering into long-term profitable business agreements for a regular input supply. Promotion of sustainable production such as intensive cultivation, soil  erosion prevention and staggered cropping is based on the development of know-how within the anchor company as well as with locally operating service providers. SNV leads the process, ensuring the replicability of sustainable services for farmers within and beyond the scope of the project. The inclusive business approach of the programme takes the medium and large enterprises as the entry point for engaging the poor. Investment, commitment and good governance is required from these enterprises to ensure the sustainability of the model.

Ethnic minority farmers located on the hillsides of North-Central Vietnam are being offered opportunities to improve their livelihoods and incomes in a sustainable way, by working together with cassava processing enterprises who want to develop cassava in an environmentally sound manner. With a grant from the Ford Foundation this value chain improvement project affected an estimated 10,000 households during the 2008-2011 period: increasing average incomes by more than 20% with additional improvements in environmental sustainability of growing practices as well as increased reliability in business relations. The companies also benefited from increased supply of cassava of higher quality. The scaling-up of the project to include 200,000 farmers is now being explored via possible collaboration between IFAD, CIAT and actors in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. The potential for collaboration between farmers and processors is enormous in Vietnam and neighbouring countries as cassava is rapidly becoming a major commodity, with hundreds of thousands of smallholders supplying products to processing enterprises.

See also: Inclusive Business at SNV

The case study presents a relatively small but meaningful pilot project that is presently scaling up from 400 to 3,000 farmers (with an ultimate goal of 10,000 participants) in Nepal’s most important apple growing district. The project focuses on increasing market access for small farmers from a remote district through brokering improved commercial relationships with agribusinesses operating in the national market. A concrete account is given of a value chain development intervention that addresses demand, transactions, supply and policy issues. Farmers’ incomes improved as apple prices increased with 200 to 300%. Business have benefited significantly due to more reliable supply, improved quality grading and certification, and import substitution.

The Enhancing Milled Rice Production in Lao PDR (EMRIP) Project has been able to develop fair trading relations between 21,361 small holder rice producing households and 21 selected rice mills within 23 months of the project’s duration. The project proved a unique success due to the stimulation of co-operation between millers and farmers; millers supported farmers with inputs, extension services and better prices. In return for investing their time and money in small farmers, millers received project support, funded by SNV, Helvetas and an EU grant, to improve milling facilities and equipment. At the base of the success of the project lies a rigorous selection process which chose the most promising millers for the project. Farmer crop yields increased by 30%; income from rice increased by around 60% and millers saw improved profitability in addition to a 10 percent increase in throughputs and supply of high quality, single variety rice. Elements of the programme are now spreading (including spontaneously), especially through “miller groups”.