Grain Legumes and Green Manures for Soil Fertility in ... - cimmyt

holds for cash income from the sale of surplus produce.
This paper analyzes opportunitie#s and constraints
for improving the adoption and impact of pigeonpea
technologies by linking technology development
and dissemination with increasing competitiveness
of pigeonpea products in domestic and international
markets. The study draws on pilot studies
carried out by ICRISAT. with national programs,
NGOs, and private·sector partners in Malawi and
Tanzania. The studies on pigeonpea in Malawi and
Tanzania also provide lessons that can be applied in
other countries and on other legumes such as
groundnut, cowpea, lablab, mucuna, common bean,
and bambaranut.
Objectives
This paper aims to analyze the determinants of
competitiveness of pigeonpea in international markets
and identify strategic interventions that can improve
competitive advantage (and thus technology
adoption). The specific objectives are to:
• Describe the pigeonpea subsectors in Malawi and
Tanzania;
• Identify opportunities and constraints for increasing
competitiveness of pigeonpea in international
markets, including targeting of investments;
• Assess the profitability of adopting new pigeonpea
technologies; and
• Draw lessons for other legume sub-sectors and
semi-arid areas in Southern Africa.
Research Approach: Theory, Hypotheses
and Methods
The conceptual framework that guides this study is
derived from business strategic management theory
and agricultural commodity subsector analysis.
Over the past two decades, these have emerged as
useful tools for analyzing the performance of agricultural
markets, diagnosing constraints and institutional
innovations to resolve them and prioritizing
potential interventions.
Conceptual Framework
The marketing of agricultural products is subject to
the law of demand and supply. Falling trader barriers
and globalization of agricultural markets have
led to standardization of consumer preferences, and
price formation forces now operate at international
rather than national or regional levels. Competition
has intensified, implying lower returns to investments
by farmers, pro~essors and traders.
Porter (1980; 1985; 1986; 1990) has developed a conceptual
framework for identifying major determinants
of competitiveness in globalized industries.
Industries achieve and sustain competitive advantage
through innovation, including. new technologies,
new product design, new production processes,
new marketing approaches, and new ways of
trading. To gain competitive advantage, a firm
must perform activities in its value added chain better
than its competitors. Because activities at any
stage depend on activities in the upstream and
downstream stages, value-added chains of different
firms interact at the different stages of technology
development-input supply-production-distributionconsumption
sequence. Therefore, firms need to
coordinate and harmonize their activities at different
stages of the vertical chain to match supply and
demand throughout the vertical stages at prices
consistent with the costs of production of least cost
producers. To be globally competitive, an agricultural
and food industry cannot be organized in an
ad hoc way. Vertical coordination is imperative.
To analyze vertical coordination of a whole sub sector,
identify opportunities for improving economic
performance, diagnose constraints and prescribe
technological and institutional changes to resolve
the constraints one can use the subsector approach
(Shaffer, 1973; Marion et al 1986; Staatz, 1996). Sub
sector analysis views effective demand as the pump
that pulls goods and services, including new technologies
such as cultivars, nutrients, and farm
equipment innovations through the vertical system.
Therefore, the approach emphasizes understanding
the dynamics of how demand is changing at both
the domestic and international levels (including the
evolution of different niche markets) and the implications
of that evolution for sub sector organization
and performance.
Hypotheses
This study explores three hypotheses:
1. Tanzania and Malawi can increase the domestic
and international competitiveness of their pigeonpea
sub-sectors by pursuing niche markets;
linking quality characteristics required by buyers
in premium markets with farmers' choice of varieties,
crop production management practices,
harvesting, and post-harvest handling during
the physical movement to markets; improving
marketing efficiency, and reducing costs of production
and transportation.
2. Investments to increase the competitiveness of
Tanzania and Malawi's pigeonpea sub-sectors
will generate high payoffs if targeted to promote
the use of best varieties, extension of crop management
advice, market information systems
and reduction of transaction and transportation
costs.
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Grain legumes and Green Manures for Soil Fertility in Southern Africa