1. Farmer First Revisited 12 – 14 December 2007 at the Institute of Development Studies, Brighton, UK Presentation, Theme 1b, Engaging with Markets Discussant: John Dixon (CIMMYT)

2. Engaging with the market John D

3. Context: generic Differentiation by system including local institutional contexts; off-farm income often > 50% of small farm-household income  Increasing demand for HVAPs -- livestock products, fish, vegetables, fruits  Globalization asymmetries; supermarket tsunami, with enormous purchasing power; niche markets and yet consolidation of agro- food firms  Growth of produce market chains cf. production; neglect of input and services chains (finance, seed, knowledge)  Reduction in public sector agricultural input and services provision; uneven replacement by private sector > “coordination” failures  Increasing role of NGOs and private sector

4. Methodological responses: generic  Differentiate explicitly farm household types in different institutional contexts  Expect dynamic responses including emergence/evaporation of niche markets and chain firms  Map specific chains and cross- linkages  Apply participatory methods (originally developed with farmers) with small and large businesses  Seek out private-public- partnerships/platforms

5. Specific issues from papers  MARKET LINKS OPERATIONAL STRATEGY (Clive)  Intermediaries  Inclusiveness? Incentives for the strong/well informed to include the marginal/resource poor?  ALTERNATIVE INNOVATION (Julieta)  Damperners: structures, workloads, mind-sets  Where is the innovation in CI&I?

6. Specific issues from papers  UPWARD (Dindo)  Pro-poor market access? How poor?  Capturing “new” impacts?  EMPOWERMENT through MARKET-LED DEVELOPMENT (Jemimah)  Ansoff risk assessment matrix – and inbuilt biases  Link micro- and macro-processes -- how?

7. Specific issues from papers  ENABLING RURAL INNOVATION (Susan et al)  Scales tipped towards women  Non-investment in farms?  THE FIRST MILE PROJECT  Communications are king!  Does this remove asymmetries?

8. Key cross-cutting questions for discussion Development through market-based agriculture will generally not eliminate rural poverty -- what are the technology, institutional and policy options to expand the poverty reduction opportunities? The tyranny of scale and negotiation realities mean farmers need to organize volume – what are the options?  Quality demands of fast food chains, supermarkets, packaging and processing plants, and hotels --- are innovations needed in participatory methods to identify win-win opportunities and risks? Pilots are plentiful – what are the necessary institutional conditions, incentives and methodologies for scaling out and up?

9.  Capacity building needs for planning, technical management and resource allocation along with knowledge of contracting need to be reinforced – what are the priorities?  Farmers  Local intermediaries  Large business  Governments  NGOs