cases from tanzania - Sustainet

5 Scaling up
elected leaders, a set of rules, etc.), the particular form of the organization, its membership,
focus and functions, and the rules it adopts, will vary from case to case.
Means
As implied in the list above, sustainable agriculture organizations use a wide range of techniques
in functional scaling up. Here are some of them.
• Training (e.g., of community AIDS educators)
• Exposure tours for farmers to other farmer’s fields
• Field days
• Participatory evaluations to improve and adapt activities
• Handouts to promote adoption of techniques
• Focus discussions to improve or adapt technologies
• Demonstrations of innovations and to suggest possibilities to adapt them
• Farmer-to-farmer extension to exchange information
• Creating new activities in response to participatory appraisal and evaluation.
challenges
Functional scaling up results in various challenges, some of them unique to this approach.
• Organizational capability When adding or adapting activities, the development
organization may find it lacks expertise in specific areas – a new crop, for example, or
marketing or microfinance. It may have to develop its own skills in this area before it
can be of use to farmers. Or it can ally with other organizations, as CHEMA (p. 77) did
when teaming up with Matunda Mema, an export firm, to promote organic pineapple
growing in Ihanda village in Tanzania. If required intervention is too far outside its own
scope, it can refer it to other organizations (including the government) that are better
equipped to intervene. Or, of course, it can choose to ignore the need.
• Infrastructure and services Expanding the range of crops and products may be
difficult without improvements in key infrastructure such as roads and electricity, and
services such as veterinary services and organic certification. Similarly, the lack of key
expertise market information and skills may make it hard to choose which new commodities
are most appropriate.
• Maintaining focus As an organization expands into unfamiliar new crops and products,
it may find its efforts become too diluted. It risks losing its focus on the initial successful
initiative, without a similar degree of success in the new ventures. The original farmers
groups may still need support – and as their businesses develop, the type of support is
likely to change.
• Adapting approaches A new commodity may require a radically different approach to
the one successfully used in the initial intervention. The organization may lack the vision
to recognize this, or capability to adopt new, more appropriate methods. As a result, it
may persist in trying to force square pegs into round holes.
125