Hello, due to my busy schedule I will first send what I have started.
1. What is your understanding of public private partnership in agribusiness ?
In the International Review of Management and Marketing vol 6. Issue 4, 2016, Public Private Partnership (PPP) is defined as an instutional and organisational alliance between government and business in order to implement national and international, large scale and local, but always socially significant projects and programs in a wide range of areas of activity.
In 2013, FAO in the Agribusiness public private partnership (PPP) UGANDA country report defined PPP in agribusiness as a relation with ministries of agriculture and private sector in order to increase competitiveness, value addition, and employement. In 2016, in the Public Private Partnership for agribusiness development in the review for international experience, FAO defined Agribusines Public Private Partnership as a formalized partnership between public institutions and private partners designed to address sustainable agricultural developpment objectives, where the public benefits anticipated from the partnership are clearly defined, investment contribution and risks are shared and active roles exist for all partners at various stages through out the PPP project life cycle.
2. How useful are agri PPPs in the Ghanaian context, please provide example from your experience, what are the factors key to sucesssful implementation of agri PPPs ?
In 2013, FAO in the Agribusiness PPPs Ghana country report presented the impact of PPPs in the Ghana context. The PPPs were initiated to improve some agribusiness domain, These had a significant impact on extension services, research and innovation development and for agriculture mechanization. The implementation of the PPPs in Ghana contributed to meeting both business and goverment interests. Farmers’ employment has increased significantly as well as their production.
Example the Ghana Rubber Project : it is a project between the Ghana Government represented by the Agricultural Development Bank of Ghana and Agence Francaise de Développement (AFD) of France which leaded to 6000 farmers gaining employment through the out grower scheme. About 80 percent of the income from the tree farming was estimated to remain in the project areas.
The key factors to sucessful implementation of agri PPPs are : the mobilisation of people at the primary end of the value chain is crucial for the success of the PPP and risk mitigation, it comes with the investment in the organization of people and infrastructural facilities. (FAO, 2013, agribusiness public private partnerships a country report of Ghana). There is also monitoring and evaluation (ME) which permit to create a solid evidence base that will provide guidance on the effective design and implementation of agri PPPs and measures their impacts over the long term. (Agribusiness and value chains, FAO, 2018). Collective action is an essential feature of all agri PPPs as it helps to reduce transaction costs and to promote inclusion (Agribusiness and value chains, FAO, 2018)
3. How can we protect smallholders and share risks fairly, while at the same time ensuring that the agri PPP is attrative to private investors
FAO in the Agribusiness and Value Chains in 2018 publised that agri PPPs should aim to share risks fairly among partners and include risk management mechanisms to protect the most vulnerable. These mechanisms include agricultural insurance schemes, gurarantees, subsidised loqns for smqll scale farmers and firmsm secure purchasing contrats, business management training for farmer organisations, and risk sharing stipulations in case of force majeur. Policy maker promoting agri PPPs for poverty reduction objectives should consider that a certain level of skils and assets are required to be a suitable candidate for participation in these partnerships. This will likely exclude the poorest unless heavy investment is made in long term capacity development.
Mr. Yves Stephane Ngaleu