Publications

This brochure introduces SNVs work in Agricultural and Forest products in Asia. SNV Asia works to ensure the rural poor gain full benefits from their land and forests, enhancing productivity, increasing incomes and improving living conditions while striving to protect these natural resources from degradation.

A capability statement concerning our work on Agricultural and Forest products in Asia.

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.

The Enhancing Milled Rice Production in Lao PDR Project (EMRIP) was jointly funded by the Food Facility of the European Union (90%) under its ‘facility for rapid response to soaring food prices in developing countries (2009) and Helvetas/SNV (10%). EMRIP built on the experiences of earlier work of SNV’s Rice Value Chain programme, and Helvetas’ Organic rice (PRORICE) programme It expanded to work in 6 provinces, and introduced additional elements notably; upgrading mills through grants of equipment, and policy dialogue to address bottlenecks in rice trade system in Lao PDR. The overall project budget was €2,348,124 over a relatively short implementation period of 23 months. The key implementation partners were the two NGOs; Helvetas and SNV with the national partner; Department of Agriculture of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. This final evaluation was carried out by an external consultant with substantial experience in the agriculture sector development in Lao PDR.

This REDD+ feasibility and scoping study is based on a short and condensed stakeholder consultation process with key agencies and officials of a series of government institutions, NGO’s and multilateral organizations. The constructive, critical and sometimes blunt insights, views and comments on REDD+ potential and feasibility in Bhutan are highly appreciated and are essential building stones of this report. The scope of this study is to keep momentum in introducing REDD+ in Bhutan and to asses the nations capacity and knowledge base, essential for compliance and voluntary market entrance, combined with an overall analysis if it is worthwhile to commit to the REDD mechanism, weighing its advantages and disadvantages, scoping the potential and possible impact and contribution to the development goals of RGoB. The study started with a stakeholder consultation of all key agencies and organisations from December 7 to 16 2010, seeking their expert knowledge and insights and benefited from the feedback of many stakeholders participating in the debriefing of the key findings and recommendations on December 20th 2010.

This practice brief explores women and gender issues in SNV Netherlands Development Organisation’s support to agricultural value chains in Africa and Asia. Across the two regions there are wide disparities in women’s access to and control over productive resources, service delivery and market opportunities. Drawing on a wide variety of case studies, the Brief describes various ways in which the underlying gender constraints are identified and addressed, through an explicit focus on women’s economic and social empowerment.

La présente note thématique porte sur les questions relatives aux femmes et à l’équité du genre du genre dans l’appui apporté par la SNV -Organisation Néerlandaise de Développement-, aux chaînes de valeur agricoles en Afrique et en Asie. Il existe à travers ces deux régions d’importantes disparités en matière d’accès des femmes aux ressources et aux moyens  de production, aux services ainsi que de leur contrôle et aux possibilités d’accès aux marchés. Se fondant sur une large gamme d’études de cas, cette note décrit différentes façons dont les contraintes de genre sous-jacentes sont identifiées et abordées, en mettant explicitement l’accent sur l’autonomisation économique et l’inclusion  sociale des femmes...

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

Workshop report of the regional inception workshop 'learning by doing: capacity development approaches at the local level, which took place on 26-27 November 2007 in Bangkok, Thailand, and was organised by UNDP and SNV (Netherlands Development Organisation), with support from the UNDP Asia Regional Governance Programme (ARGP). The primary workshop objectives were 1) to share lessons learned on capacity development strategies and development efforts aimed at contributing to the MDGs at the sub-national/local level; and 2) identify critical knowledge gaps that need to be addressed to support sub-national/local capacities for reaching the MDGs.

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.

Upland communities in Laos have the benefit of access to relatively large tracts of land, compared with neighbouring countries. Yet these communities use their resources mainly for subsistence production. Adding vallue to agricultural and forest products remains difficult: there is little capital to invest in technology that could add value to products, infrastructure and storage is poor, and market information is often lacking. Market awareness projects in northern Laos are showing that these sorts of challenges can be overcome.

This paper concerning market access of honey producers in Cameroon was written for the international conference on ‘the role of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) in poverty alleviation and biodiversity conservation’. The conference was held in Vietnam.