ICRISAT’s iMODe. The village as minimum development goal

MANILA - ICRISAT is quietly reinventing market-oriented agriculture, so you may not have heard of it. They call their approach inclusive market-oriented development. For that, they use the acronym IMOD; I prefer the acronym iMODe, to call attention to the concepts of inclusive and development, that which are ICRISAT's twin intellectual contributions to market-oriented agriculture, MOA. The central idea is to link farmers to markets in an inclusive way order to escape poverty. Certainly a radical notion.

To appreciate the importance of that, let us consider Michael Porter’s notion of the value chain, but in a modified manner. All things being equal, to a farm produce, there is value added along the way as it goes to the market. In MOA, the value chain actors are: (1) input providers, (2) producers, (3) traders, (4) processors, and (5) marketers (fiji-taro-and-kava.com). I interpret that quite simply as that the chain is like this:

Inputter --> Producer --> Trader --> Processor --> Marketer

Note that the Producer (Farmer) is only #2 in the value chain. Above all, he is dependent on the Inputter, who is #1 in the chain. Inputters include capitalists. The dependence of the Producer is clearly illustrated by the fact that in the Philippines, farmers have to purchase on credit from the suppliers of inputs such as fertilizers and chemicals, these pair being the most expensive items in modern farming.

And if you notice, as the chain gets longer, the value keeps adding and adding, but nothing goes back to the Producer. Now you don't wonder why the Farmer remains poor. In this marketer-biased value chain, the farmer is totally dependent on what the chain can afford to give him in terms of a discount by the input supplier and of a price that the trader dictates.

Now, in this modern world, with scientific agriculture, especially with the advent of climate change, I believe the value chain is longer, like this:

(1) Input Providers - Suppliers of seeds, fertilizers, chemicals
(2) Software Providers - Suppliers of new knowledge or methods 
(3) Hardware Providers - Suppliers of technologies: tools, equipment (4) Producers - Farmers and farm workers 
(5) Traders - Buyers in bulk or in excess of table needs 
(6) Processors - Manufacturers: semi- or full processors 
(7) Marketers - Businessmen: Developers of markets

As it happens, the Businessman may be in control of the whole production-to-marketing process. He may be the supplier of inputs, software, and hardware; he may provide capital to the producer, trader, processor, and marketer - if so, he controls the entire value chain; he controls who gets the added values.

What happens if you have the Farmer as himself the Businessman, as an active, decisive actor in all the stages of value-adding? Now you have an idea of iMODe.

Already, there is market-oriented agriculture in general and market-oriented agriculture projects in particular. MOA is a beautiful name for commercial farming and gardening, but it unnecessarily limits the share given to the producer from the values added. IMODe brings the concept to a higher level with a wider sweep of the horizon, including the farmer as a sharer of the benefits along the way from Inputting to Marketing.

Did you notice that in the term inclusive market-oriented development, the word agriculture does not appear? My explanation is this, if I understand where ICRISAT is coming from:

Inclusive refers to the poor farmers being included, those who have little or no access to capital, credit, land, extra labor, and technology. I suggest that it also is inclusive of marginalized lands where you find marginalized farmers.

Inclusive also suggests that the farmers are in fact active participants and decision makers beginning with the supply of inputs and in each stage where their produce keeps adding value. In other words, with an appropriate business organization, such as a producer marketing group or a cooperative, the farmers can themselves be the input providers, software providers, hardware providers, producers, traders, processors, and marketers all in one.

Market-Oriented refers to commercial purposes, producing for other consumers other than one's household; if in agriculture, this is the farmer producing beyond his family's food needs - theoretically, the more, the better. Market-oriented agriculture is commodity-specific, like market-oriented rice, corn, and potato. MOA is for improving the future of individual farmers with their favored crops and businessmen with their favored companies. I understand.

Market-oriented can mean 2 things: (1) you supply the product that is most in-demand by consumers, and/or (2) you create the market for a new product or an old but improved product. What the experts are calling market-oriented agriculture in the Philippines is planting high-value crops, such as what they have in Cotabato with cardava banana, hybrid coconut, oil palm, and rubber (soccsksargen.com), but those are good only for some farmers, not the great majority, and certainly not the poor ones. Also, under MOA, the producers are the same helpless farmers largely dependent on the benevolence of inputters, traders, processors, and marketers. MOA is more for improving more the lives of other than producers. I can see that.

In contrast, where the market orientation is inclusive, the view is wider than simply a focus on commodity. I see that iMODe is for improving the future of villages. Indeed, I believe that the village is the minimum development goal and iMODe is the way to go. Inclusive of inputters, producers, traders, processors, marketers. Inclusive of stewardship of the environment. 

Development refers to a sea change, a socially shared growth. Inclusive market orientation brings about widespread socio-economic development that begins with the poor farmers.

If you talk ICRISAT, you talk of the semi-arid tropics, the drylands. Remember, there you will find 300 million people - the world's poorest. You must think beyond agriculture so that "there is hope of breaking the stubborn grip of poverty, hunger, malnutrition and environmental degradation" (ICRISAT Strategic Plan to 2020, page 1). This calls for public-private partnerships.

I note that in 2005, ICRISAT designed an institutional new Vision and Strategy to 2015 (Simon G Best, Foreword, Nurturing Life in the Drylands of Hope, Patancheru: ICRISAT, page ix). This year, 2010, 5 years later, they found the need to reformulate and came out with the ICRISAT Strategic Plan to 2020, subtitled "Inclusive Market-Oriented Development for Smallholder Farmers in the Tropical Drylands." ICRISAT is one among 15 centers of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, CGIAR, which is “currently enacting fundamental reforms to bolster strategic planning, investment and action” (Strategic Plan, page 1). With climate change taken into account, I’m sure.

In fact, I have written about the IMOD (see “An African Revolution. IMOD Power to the Women!” 21 September 2010, American Chronicle, where the women are proving to be the better sex, and “The ICRISAT Strat. Drylands & the economics of the little,” 28 September 2010, American Chronicle), where the women show that the poor are not helpless, with a little help from their friends. In ICRISAT Strat, I mention the farmers of Babati in Tanzania with whom ICRISAT has been working. ICRISAT says for instance, the contract growers of pigeon pea sell their harvests through producer marketing groups, and those smallholders benefit from collective action.

Our conceptual framework of Inclusive Market-Oriented Development (IMOD) envisions a path to end poverty, not just alleviate it. This concept relies on unleashing the energies of the poor by enabling them with diverse, purposeful, innovative and action-oriented partnerships, more productive and resilient technologies, and supportive policies. (Strategic Plan, page 1)

The poor will have to be active actors working for the development of their own villages, inclusive of their own families.

Throughout the history of agriculture, one path has provided a consistently effective way out of poverty: the generation of surpluses that are stored for later use, or sold into markets to earn income. Stored food provides a buffer in times of hunger, and higher incomes make it possible to purchase more food when needed. Income also enables the poor to purchase inputs, such as seed, fertilizer, labor, tools, livestock, insurance and education. These inputs raise farm productivity and prosperity further and enable another round of investment and productivity growth, creating a self-reinforcing pathway out of poverty. (Strategic Plan, page 2)

About the IMOD, ICRISAT says, "Rather than considering poverty to be a 'normal' and inevitable state in the drylands, this conceptual framework seeks a fundamental transformation to a different state - one of markedly higher agricultural growth and prosperity. Our strategy is designed not to alleviate poverty but to help end it." (Strategic Plan, page 13)

"We will carry out research to improve assistance programs and policies, strengthen safety nets, and build resilience - thus opening doors to IMOD." Environmental resilience, to ICRISAT, is the ability "to withstand and recover from such recurring stresses as drought, heat, windstorms and disease epidemics." (Strategic Plan, pages 15-16)I see those as climate change adaptation and climate change mitigation.

Ultimately, IMOD / iMODe is all about sharing by the poor from value chain systems. "IMOD should be geared (towards increasing) the proportion of total value within the chain that is captured by the poor, eg, through cooperative land and farm operations management, collective marketing and related strategies." (Strategic Plan, page 19).

With market-orientation as part of its new unifying concept, will ICRISAT stop improving the genetic stocks of its 5 mandate crops - chickpea, groundnut (peanut), pearl millet, pigeon pea, and sorghum? Of course not! New varieties are great inputs into inclusive market-oriented development of communities.

So, inclusive market-oriented development includes women, the landless, unemployed youth, the elderly, and ethnic communities. ICRISAT and public-private partners will contribute to the common endeavor the required inputs, software, and hardware; will link farmers to traders, processors and marketers, if the farmers themselves do not assume such roles.

In iMODe, everything is included, considered. Now there is market access for the farmers; distorted market prices become a thing of the past; you make the farmers competitive, even given lack of infrastructure - which is merely a challenge to ingenuity. In iMODe, development is shared specially with the poor. Where there is a will, there is a way to share values added.

Inclusive of poor farmers. In ICRISAT's iMODe, I see the future.