Madagascar Aromatic and Medicinal Plants Value - Microlinks

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options. The legitimatization of traditional practitioners is an important element in upgrading the quality and availability of healthcare, stimulating demand for high quality AMP and strengthening the value chain overall. 3. WEALTH a. Poverty reduction. A fundamental question is whether the AMP value chain has potential to contribute to poverty reduction. The majority of producers are poor (and young and/or female). AMP are a source of cash income as well as a means of diversifying household livelihoods. The amounts are small but not insignificant. AMP is a viable sector in Madagascar, with potential for competitive advantage in the global marketplace, but sector growth will not necessarily lead to poverty reduction. For example, the trend toward vertical integration may increase sector competitiveness through efficiency gains while marginalizing rural producers. There are opportunities to improve the position (and income) of the poor—by improving their power to negotiate prices (perhaps through some type of producer association), by providing stable markets for their products, or by creating opportunities for local level value-added processing (perhaps through community-level distilleries or incentives for quality control and traceability). The experiences of Phael Flor and Label CBD provide a model for win-win relationships along the value chain. Some producers feel that employment in plantations could increase income security, health standards and connectivity to more formal agricultural technology. A more detailed economic analysis is necessary to compare the relative advantages of production systems for smallholders. b. Social relations between producers and collectors. AMP are only one element of the relationships between producers and collectors. Collectors often deal in multiple products (many of which, such as rice, are more important than AMP) and provide additional services such as credit. Producers complain about receiving low prices for AMP, determined by the collectors, but because of the complex relationships that develop between them, they cannot seek alternative markets. Moreover, there are frequently few or no alternative markets (i.e., producers cannot take their products elsewhere). Local producers have little power to influence prices in the face of effective local-level monopsony (single potential buyer), and they accrue limited direct benefits from participation in the value chain as a result. Efforts to improve the bargaining position of producers must address the multifaceted nature of this relationship. Integrating AMP producers into a broader, existing cooperative structure could improve their bargaining position. Providing services, such as small credit or cereal banking, through the cooperative could further strengthen the bargaining position by reducing dependence on collectors. 4. POWER a. Producer organizations. Poor information flow and lack of bargaining power is partially the result of poorly organized producers. Producer associations are almost non-existent in the AMP sector, in part because production is part-time for most gatherers and producers, and in part because of the immense distance between actors, both in travel time (by foot) and due to low penetration of transport infrastructure in the productive areas studied. Producer organizations that could disseminate market and technical information to members and provide the services of an advocacy group would be difficult and time consuming to form and sustain. However, they are necessary to improve the position of producers, to enhance the efficiency and equity of the entire value chain, to enable participation in decision-making and to promote sustainable practices. At current levels, it is unlikely that producers will have incentive to self-organize. However, it may be possible to organize them under pre-existing groups, such as the federated koloharena. It may also be possible to work with downstream actors to promote producer organizations as a means of obtaining quality product. MADAGASCAR AROMATIC AND MEDICINAL PLANT VALUE CHAIN ANALYSIS 56
. Strengthening local government. Receipts from payment of taxes are a potential source of revenue for cashstrapped communal governments. However, few of them have the capacity to monitor or enforce their own policies in this regard, so there is significant leakage. Strengthening this capacity, enabling communal governments to collect taxes, could provide incentive and ability for them to monitor resource use—particularly to limit destructive harvesting of high-value, wildcrafted forest AMP. These funds could be used in part to invest in natural resource management. But they can also contribute to improving the effectiveness and responsiveness of nascent local governments in a general sense by fostering accountability from constituents if seen as contributing financial resources of consequence. MADAGASCAR AROMATIC AND MEDICINAL PLANT VALUE CHAIN ANALYSIS 57
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MADAGASCAR AROMATIC AND MEDICINAL P
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CONTENTS LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS i I.
Page 5 and 6:
I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Context of stu
Page 7 and 8:
collectors and small retailers repr
Page 9 and 10: competitiveness but that these impr
Page 11 and 12: Inter-Firm Cooperation (Vertical) D
Page 13 and 14: II. BACKGROUND A. INTRODUCTION Mada
Page 15 and 16: • reduce poverty through increase
Page 17 and 18: products, many of which have relati
Page 19 and 20: Table 1 summarizes the principal pl
Page 21 and 22: 1. EXPORT MARKETS In terms of value
Page 23 and 24: Table 3: Prevalence of Medicinal Pl
Page 25 and 26: the packets or herbal mixes sold by
Page 27 and 28: this process and offer potential ve
Page 29 and 30: period and do not take into account
Page 31 and 32: ownership) of natural resources fro
Page 33 and 34: have begun facilitating informal as
Page 35 and 36: 2. COLLECTORS Collectors and sub-co
Page 37 and 38: Table 8: Estimated Numbers of Forma
Page 39 and 40: mass local consumer. The simplicity
Page 41 and 42: Research institutions and laborator
Page 43 and 44: action to reduce pressure on the ec
Page 45 and 46: Table 12: Access Map Actor Type of
Page 47 and 48: Most plants wildcrafted from distur
Page 49 and 50: friction between formal and informa
Page 51 and 52: Table 15: Inter-Firm Cooperation (V
Page 53 and 54: Table 17: Firm-Level Upgrading Leve
Page 55 and 56: Constraint Action Timeframe Lead ab
Page 57 and 58: Support partners WHO ACTION Process
Page 59: V. CONCLUSION: LINKING VALUE CHAINS
Page 63 and 64: • The relationships between these
Page 65 and 66: ANNEX 2: EXPORT PRICE OF SELECT MAL
Page 67 and 68: Wildcrafting talepetraka Wildcrafti
Page 69 and 70: Small, formal distillery Stakeholde
Page 71 and 72: MADAGASCAR AROMATIC AND MEDICINAL P
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Madagascar Aromatic and Medicinal Plants Value - Microlinks

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