Regional Markets

Regional Markets for Local Development
the quality and quantity of production as well as to enable farmers to find an outlet
for the increased production volume. FoSHoL combines the provision of improved
seeds with more sustainable environmental practices, such as soil and water conservation.
NGOMA is another case that combines investments in technology (dairy cooler
plants) with innovations in group organisation, to help group marketing and service
provision. Improvement of crop varieties was a prominent feature in several cases
(Senegal, FoSHoL, as well as the cotton case and banana cases, both in Zimbabwe). It
was generally utilised to increase yields or to produce varieties that are more in demand.
The case owners in the writeshop believed that the introduction of new varieties had
been successful in boosting yields and allowing the establishment of a marketing outlet.
For unknown reasons, ‘recovering traditional knowledge’ did not feature in any of the
project activities, even though the case owners themselves felt that it is very important.
Environmental sustainability did not feature prominently in the discussion on sustainability
either. This does not necessarily mean that the projects are not environmentally
conscious. Fairtrade is one case where environmentally sustainable practices are explicitly
encouraged.
The case owners believe that innovations have been important for expanding the impact
of the intervention. While they generally think that innovations lead to enhanced economic
opportunities, some also mentioned the associated higher equipment costs: dryers
(C:AVA), processing units (Senegal), and milk coolers (NGOMA). The return on
these investments needs to be carefully weighed against the associated risks especially
in a local market with limited elasticity. Other small businesses may seek to learn from
these experiences, and it is essential to show the best lessons learned (especially as some
of these budding initiatives may not enjoy donor support). Making correct cost-benefit
analyses when considering innovation investments is essential for the sustainable economic
development of small-scale producers. This may be even more important for
cases where poor farmers are engaged, as their risk profile is even more constraining
than exporters’ may be. Interestingly, the case owners did not explicitly mention sustainability
in the context of building relationships with other value chain actors. Taking
advantage of such opportunity to establish durable business relationships can go a long
way in helping smallholders secure a larger portion of the profits from the final marketing
of the produce and thus reduce risks overall.
As stated above, although most innovations focused on economic concerns, such as
improving yields and boosting incomes, it seems that most cases also considered innovations
at social, organisational and—maybe to a lesser extent—environmental levels
to be important when developing regional market value chains. Figure 4.8 shows the
importance that cases attach to innovation. We would like to stress that nearly all cases
discuss the implementation of several complementary innovations, i.e. economic as well
as non-economic. Figure 4.9 illustrates the extent to which the projects’ interventions
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