Untapped Markets .ca

Farmer Behavior Change & Technology Adoption

minashahid — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 13:43:10 +0000

In August I had the opportunity to conduct a study on the impact that demonstration plots were having on farming behavior change and technology adoption. My partner, the Savannah Agricultural Research Institute, requested the study to understand how the Soil Health Project they were implementing was creating change for farmers. They wanted to learn ...»

The Role of the MOU in New Business Relationships

markbrown — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 10:43:46 +0000

Market Facilitation is about fostering new relationships between businesses in agriculture. In sub-Saharan Africa much of the business that takes place happens “informally”. Informal business is any business activity that it is not overseen by the government. These activities are not taxed or regulated. They are also not legally binding. As the businessplace in ...»

Conviction and behaviour change

davidlalanne — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 11:41:29 +0000

Here is a little story about behaviour change and how conviction is essential in the process of technology adoption.

This one is from my own field experience with weedicide application or what every farmer call «spraying». Spraying is a very important part of farming and it’s normally done right after ploughing or during planting ...»

Tech Adoption without the Inputs?

minashahid — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 14:53:45 +0000

I spent the past two days in rural communities in the Tolon/Kumbungu District of Northern Ghana. Both Kunguri, and Wantugu are communities that have farmer groups participating in an AGRA funded Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM) project. The project aims to educate farmer groups on improved soil management practices by demonstrating various packages of ...»

Market Research and What Does It Mean?

anniewang — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 15:00:57 +0000

If a business in Canada wishes to expand, grow and succeed, a piece of frequent advices it will certainly get is captured in two words: market research. Essentially, know your customers and know your niche. Business planning experts will tell you never to underestimate the importance of market research. They will tell you that ...»

Competition Between Yendi Input Dealers

evanmacadam — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 15:07:55 +0000

I am working with input retailers in Yendi district to understand their challenges and facilitate change that is beneficial to their business and beneficial to farmers. Input retailers sell agriculture chemicals, seeds and/or fertilizers to farmers. Farmers have witnessed that the chemicals can have adverse affects on crops and the user’s health.

One ...»

AVC’s hidden dilemma

davidlalanne — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 21:59:48 +0000

In the constantly changing world of aid, many people will tell you that there is right now a clear trend towards value chain projects in development organisations around the planet. It is now assumed that investing in the private sector of emerging countries, particularly in agriculture, is the best way to help small-holder farmers ...»

Involving businesses in market facilitation M&E

Mike Klassen — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 11:36:46 +0000

Let me be completely honest. I’ve been quite skeptical of the effectiveness of the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) systems on the big value chains project I’m currently working on. My main observations involved an M&E officer at a field office screaming at field staff to fill in forms, go interview smallholder farmers and “reach ...»

Equipment breakdown

davidlalanne — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 10:44:16 +0000

For the last 2 months I have been working with a small-scale nucleus farmer in Wa, in the Upper West region. To give a very general explanation, a nucleus farmer is someone who provides inputs to a certain number of outgrowers, who have to repay him in kind at the end of the harvest.

...»

Demonstration Farms – who should pay?

Mike Klassen — Fri, 27 May 2011 13:43:40 +0000

So back in March I wrote that “… the farmer’s success is tightly coupled to my success as an input dealer”. A great assertion, but in April I had a number of interactions with input dealers that started to reveal why this is more challenging in practice.

Current bad situation: A common characterization of ...»

Sustainable Business Part 2

minashahid — Thu, 19 May 2011 14:54:29 +0000

So I mentioned that I would follow-up on the Sustainable Business post after visiting a pineapple processor. Last week I had the chance to visit IE-Starke Ghana, the producers of For You pineapple juice. It was a particularly interesting visit, as I realized how small-scale these pineapple juice producers were, and the key challenges ...»

Know Your Client: Making Finance Work for Agro-Processors Ghana

markbrown — Thu, 19 May 2011 12:30:23 +0000

Trying to access credit from financial institutions in most of sub-Saharan Africa is difficult. Ghana is no exception. This is something that I was aware of when my placement started but now I have seen some of the deeper complexities that surround the initiatives that attempt to address this fundamental challenge.

Interest rates in ...»

The power of word of mouth

Colleen Duncan — Thu, 12 May 2011 10:28:25 +0000

Word of mouth is a very powerful thing. It can temper the impact of a decision. It can feed the flames of dissent. In the agricultural business in Africa, it can be the difference between farmers choosing to sell you their produce or not.

In Ghana, they are looking to work in the fruit ...»

Project-conscious & Business-conscious

Wayne Miranda — Mon, 09 May 2011 13:00:13 +0000

For the past two days I’ve been meeting with rice industry players around Kumasi, Ghana with Nash, a field business facilitator on the USAID ADVANCE agriculture market development project. Nash has been doing this work for decades in all parts of Ghana. So we had a lot to talk about, but one thing that ...»

The end-game of market facilitation?

Wayne Miranda — Sun, 08 May 2011 11:38:43 +0000

In a taxi-ride conversation about how market facilitation happens and business relationships form in Canada, my fellow colleagues Mark, Mike, Colleen and I laugh when our answer is “deals on the golf course”. The logical extension is that we’re seriously investing our time in the wrong way—we should be building 9-hole golf courses!

But ...»