Agriculture to Agri-business: Management systems for high-value horticulture

Partners:

NRDC/ZEGA Training Trust (NZTT), Zambia
Lubulima Commercial Cooperatives Unions (LACCU), Zambia
National Institute for Scientific and Industrial Research (NISIR), Zambia
Agribusiness Management Associates (U) Ltd (AMA), Uganda
Amfri Farms Limited, Kampala, Uganda
Jaksons Farms Limited, Kampala, Uganda
Kutsaga Research Station (KRS), Harare, Zimbabwe
Government Analyst Laboratory (GAL), Zimbabwe

Problem:

Rapid urbanisation and globalisation of food supply chains coupled with the rise of national and trans-national supermarket chains have created income opportunities for smallholder farmers to supply fresh produce and other products into the retail supply chain. Supermarket supply chains are associated with more stable demand and higher prices than other markets. Supermarket supply chains may involve local or export markets. However, supermarkets demand compliance with private standards for food safety, quality and good agricultural practice (GAP) with independent third part verification of standard compliance as a condition for market entry. Smallholders making the transition from agriculture to agribusiness find it difficult to meet these standards on technical and financial grounds and in many cases the supporting institutional framework is unable to provide the necessary level of technical support.

Achievements:

Between 2002 and 2006, a coalition of partners in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Uganda and UK developed and implemented a cost-effective and sustainable management and control system to enable fruit and vegetable smallholders to meet the requirements of the EurepGAP standard and access high-value EU retail markets. The management and control system was developed to enable either a farmers’ organisation or an exporter to become the primary marketing organisation (PMO) with legal and contractual responsibility for ensuring that all growers involved in the scheme were using the same system and complying with all of the requirements for EurepGAP.

Key features of the system included strengthening farmer / cooperative organisation to achieve cost savings and improve efficiency and management capacity to negotiate with buyers, input suppliers, financial institutions and technical service providers. A complete management and control system for all aspects of good agricultural practice, food safety and quality assurance with integrated quality management (QM & QMS) and traceability (vertical & horizontal traceability to plot level) systems was developed. A novel peer group training system was developed relying on farmer prepared visual training materials and daily reinforcement. Farmer and service provider exchange visits and interactions were introduced with training for the service providers to improve capacity to provide effective extension advice, training, farm inspection/auditing and support for system development.

This system was developed for smallholders needing to meet the requirements of the EurepGAP protocol for fresh fruits and vegetables, but it could readily be adapted for combinable crops, non-food crops, livestock or aquaculture. Features could be expanded or reduced to meet the needs of any private or public sector farm-gate production standard.