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What I would like to share relates to the first question on How can smallholder farmers benefit from global value chains? and partly to the second question on What are the challenges for policy implementation in your country related to food security research?
I will refer to our experience at the German Development Institute, where I am leading a project that evaluates the impact of agricultural economic corridor development on poverty, employment, land tenure, productivity and food security. Although my main focus is on the Nacala in Mozambique, one component of my project is the comparison of the Nacala corridor with the Greater Mekong Subregion East West Economic Corridor (GMS EWEC) that traverses Myanmar, Thailand, Lao PDR and Vietnam. I will also refer to our recently concluded project on enterprise upgrading where we looked at factors that affected the growth of micro and small enterprises in the Philippines, Egypt and India. Finally, I will also refer to another recently concluded project on FDI in retail in India.
Smallholder farmers benefit tremendously from being integrated into global value chains. The learning that occurs when farmers are integrated into GVCs is a key component to their growth. Farmers learn about standards (for example, on chemical use), how to increase productivity (on seeds, farming techniques and practices), new technology (on machineries or mechanization) and even on communication (for example, the benefits of cooperatives, networking, ICT for agriculture). The downside of this is when smallholders could not be integrated into GVCs because they simply could not change production systems to adapt to higher standards or higher productivity levels because it is expensive, complicated or time intensive. However, even in this sense, policy makers could help farmers be competitive by supporting their venture into other employment opportunities such as becoming traders or self employed into non-agricultural or semi-agricultural businesses. Global value chains simply open up doors for smallholders and provides them the option to select what they think will improve their situation.
The problem is the HOW. Firstly there needs to be more high-quality tailored food security-related research in APEC. More funding should be provided to conduct relevant research that translates into implementable policies for the region. These researches should set out from the beginning, a monitoring and evaluation element as well as a pathways to impact component, such that, from the beginning the research envisions what kind of impact (and to whom) it will create. Secondly, knowing that food security research in the APEC is uncommon, knowledge management is critical. I am not aware if there is a consotium or an institution that gathers and manages all the food security knowledge that is available for the region. This should be one of the priorities in the APEC.
Thank you very much!
Dr. Aimée Hampel-Milagrosa
Senior Researcher
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Food Security, Gender Equality and Peace-Building
Consultation--
I am reminded of a female upgraded entrepreneur that I interviewed in the Southern Philippines. She sources coffee beans from tribal communities in Mindanao as well communities that are in conflict-affected areas. These traditional coffee beans are the communities' means of acquiring income and securing food for the household, because she offers a fair price for them and markets the beans herself (locally and abroad). Her engagement has improved the lives of women (as they are mostly involved in harvesing and pre-processing of beans) and their families through improved incomes. She uses her enterprise to also advocate for peace, because coffee ceremonies are used as platform for negotiations between warring tribes, as well as between government and muslim groups. I have written about her enterprise and advocacy in my publication. Her business model is a win-win situation for all involved, and has impacted women, incomes, agriculture and peace in southern Philippines (see Hampel-Milagrosa, 2014 Micro and small enterprise upgrading in the Philippines, DIE Studies 86).
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On recent visit to my home country, the Philippines, I was amazed at how a microentrepreneur managed to harness the vitamins and minerals from mangosteen, and provide it in capsule form. Mangosteen has proven to be rich in anti oxidants and tannins that can cure a range of illnesses, from heart problems, joint pains, allergies to cancer. The mangosteen capsules (and now in coffee and tea form) could be procured almost everywhere, however the technology has proven to be exclusive that prices are still non affordable for the masses. I would like to propose testing mangosteen for mass production into capsules or into tea form so that poor people would also avail of it. Alternatively, similar to mangosteen, I would also like to propose testing promegranate for its properties and for possibility for mass production. Promegranate is produced in south India and could be an alternative source of natural medicines for the poor.
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Dear FSN moderator,
please find my feedback on the draft concept note of the 10YFP
Best regards,
Dr. Aimée Hampel-Milagrosa
Senior ResearcherAbt II Nachhaltige Wirtschafts- und Sozialentwicklung
Department of Sustainable Economic and Social Development
Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE) / German Development Institute,
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Dr. Aimée Hampel-Milagrosa
We would like to share a commentary that we published in our website recently. The commentary reacts to a book published by Oxford on Nutrition, but fits perfectly into this discussion.
http://www.die-gdi.de/en/the-current-column/article/cherry-picking-the-reasons-for-hunger-1/
We should abstain from identifying only urbanization and an increasing population as root causes of food insecurity. Economic access to food plays a dominant role in explaining food insecurity. By overemphasizing nutritional and population aspects and downplaying or even ignoring income poverty and other factors affecting access, the food security perspective becomes economically and socially myopic and politically blind.
Food insecurity is a muddled and dynamic interplay of various elements, many of them heavily anchored to poverty. Poverty is a result of extremely low (or lack of) incomes in the majority of the population and/ or a lack of economic transfers, either based on social relations or by government transfer systems.
Without neglecting other reasons for low incomes in rural areas – such as low land and water endowments – incomes in rural areas are low because productivity in agriculture is low. In many poor countries smallholder yields are only 15-30% of their potential. This reduces the amount of production for subsistence and for selling on markets to purchase other much needed products and services, from food to education to health to communication. These are all required to improve basic living conditions including food security and nutrition. Low agricultural sales and income also reduce local economic dynamics, do not create demand for labour and inputs, keep wages low and do not contribute to vibrant economic off-farm activities. The deeply needed social and cash transfers in poor countries are often lacking because a large part of the population is poor, lives off the informal sector , has no resilience against shocks such as droughts, floods and war, does not pay taxes and has only little political influence. This is poverty!
The engine for improving agricultural productivity and higher incomes for rural population often lies in a better integration into markets. To be integrated into the market, smallholders have to produce substantially higher yields through intensifying their production. This requires increased efforts of, for example, land, water, labour, biological resources and knowledge. If smallholders rely more on internal resources such as mulching, composting, manuring, multi-storey cropping, agro-forestry or irrigation, this usually requires more labour during critical periods which poor households do not have. They have to hire labour or invest in mechanization, which only is possible if additional capital is available.
Cash earnings from agricultural production require good and predictable marketing channels, as well as remunerative and stable prices . Assuming that indeed, a marketable surplus is achieved, the hurdle of bringing the produce to the market and selling it at competitive prices still needs to be overcome. They compete with other providers, either locally or internationally. In the case of communities that live in peripheral areas with negligible market access, integrating them into the value chains is a barrier that is extremely challenging to overcome.
Again, the link to the site is: http://www.die-gdi.de/en/the-current-column/article/cherry-picking-the-reasons-for-hunger-1/