Strengthening farmer organisations: a systematic learning approach for improved service delivery

STRENGTHENING FARMER ORGANISATIONS:A SYSTEMATIC LEARNING APPROACH FOR IMPROVED SERVICE DELIVERY

Johannes (Joe) Ramaru PICO Southern Africa

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Overview of the presentation

Introduction

The development of systemic competence

Application of the systemic competence approach and

outcomes

Competence development of extension staff

Shaping the local organizational development

Using farmer organisations to link farmers’ demand with

response for services

Broadening the operational scope of local organisations

beyond agriculture

General insights and implications

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Background

Starting the reorientation of service delivery in

Limpopo Province of South Africa - 1998

Insufficient practical know-how by officers of Ministry of the

Agriculture (MOA) on how to deliver services to the majority of

smallholder farmers

Weak local organizations that are unable to access services from

existing government programmes

BASED (broadening agricultural services and extension delivery)

program launched by MOA in May 1998

BASED: - Bilateral program implemented by MOA & supported by

GTZ (German Technical Co-operation)

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Development of Systemic Competence

Not based on modular topics, but engage people in learning

processes to enable them to perform their work better

Consists of learning instruments such as learning workshops,

mentoring field practice, peer – learning groups…

Subsequent learning workshop builds on the findings of the

previous ones and also the field experience

One of the cornerstones of the systemic competence development

approach is facilitation for change (F4C)

F4C aims at developing emancipation from inside to enable people

to better use the space they have to develop their potential

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Application of the systemic competence approach and outcomes

-Competence development of extension staff-

PEA learning cycle: PEA learning cycle: From Masvingo in Zimbabwe - the year 1998 From Masvingo in Zimbabwe - the year 1998

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Application of the systemic competence approach and outcomes

-Competence development of extension staff-

The competence development started in 1998 with 40 extension

officers & scientists from Capricorn and Vhembe districts

Newly trained peer - learning teams were given mentoring support

to develop their competencies during the practical usage of the

PEA approach

By end of 2004, competencies were developed 377 extension

officers from 5 of 6 districts in all phases of the PEA learning cycle

Out of this group, 40 were identified as trainers and mentors to

support future competence development processes

27 of the 40 officers were found to have the skills to apply the PEA

process in new contexts.

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Application of the systemic competence approach and outcomes

-Competence development of extension staff-

PEA Learning cycle :PEA Learning cycle :To Limpopo in South Africa – the year 2001 To Limpopo in South Africa – the year 2001

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Application of the systemic competence approach and outcomes

-Shaping the local organizational development from practice -

Process of community emancipation emerged when local organisations in the communities saw the need to form forums that were locally known as umbrella organisations (UOs)

UO is a village forum whose members are elected according to agreed criteria developed by the representative groups.

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Application of the systemic competence approach and outcomes

-Shaping the local organizational development from practice -

Functions of UOs varied in different communities, but they were

mainly established to:

Link with service provider and bargain for better services

Organise core experiments/activities

Coordinate activities for sharing of the experience

Support planning and monitoring of activities in all groups

Solve conflicts with minimum external support

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Application of the systemic competence approach and outcomes

-Shaping the local organizational development from practice -

Establishment and strengthening of farmer groups in the communities was enhanced through the use of codes.

Code helped farmers to internalize community values

E.g self – reliance, self – organisation, unity and cooperation and the importance of sharing and feedback

Bus code for self organisation

River code for self - reliance

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Application of the systemic competence approach and outcomes

-Shaping the local organizational development from practice -

After five years of implementing PEA, the extension officers facilitated the establishment of

63 functional UOs in 211 villages.

UOs were found to have 529 agricultural and non – agricultural interest and farmer groups.

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Application of the systemic competence approach and outcomes

- Using farmer organisations to link farmers’ demand with response for services-

Officers were also exposed to iterative learning workshops in technical areas

Development of innovation processes in: Soil fertility management, Soil and water conservation …)

Tools used to awareness creation, which helped farmers take informed decision to solve their technical problems.

Lever scale - importance of manure in improving the water holding capacity of soils

soil - trays for illustrating the effect of soil erosion on different fields

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Application of the systemic competence approach and outcomes

- Using farmer organisations to link farmers’ demand with response for services-

 Type

Number of farmers Number of bags (50kg) Money contributed by farmers in Rands

99/00 00/01 01/02 99/00 00/01 01/02 99/00 00/01 01/02

2:3:2 290 242 1183 628 441 2557 46434 34504 242147LAN 204 84 1014 259 178 1218 11833 14722 106074Super 0 7 14 0 5 43 0 296 2537Totals       887 624 3878 58267 49522 350758

No. of villages

3 4 26 3 4 26 3 4 26

Table 1 Organisation and distribution of fertilisers in the Capricorn and Vhembe districts (1$= R7.8, 30 September 2011)

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Application of the systemic competence approach and outcomes

- Using farmer organisations to link farmers’ demand with response for services-

Extract of the speech by the Political Head of MOA about Smallscale seed production innovation, 26th April 2005‘ …. this initiative, which is currently being implemented in Vhembe, Capricorn, and Sekhukhune districts is expanding quickly, with 108ha of land under maize seed production. During the 2004 season, 14 230 kg of ZM521 maize seed has been treated and packaged by small-scale farmers. In the past year, farmers in Vhembe and Capricorn established a Seed Growers Associations that now has 750 members. Government has earmarked R 550 000 to help these farmers establish three seed processing centres/depots in the province….

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Application of the systemic competence approach and outcomes

- Using farmer organisations to link farmers’ demand with response for services-

Organizational capacity of the UOs in the initial three pilot villages got the attention of farmers from neighbouring villages, by 2005, Soil fertility management implemented in 105 villages Soil &water conservation implemented in 99 villages Livestock management implemented in 95 villages Small scaleseed production implemented in 98 villages

S(SSSP) = small scale seed production SFM = soil fertility management L = LivestockSWC = Soil & water conservation

SP = Sweet potatoes

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Application of the systemic competence approach and outcomes

-Broadening the operational scope of local organisation beyond agriculture-

After 2 years of strengthening local organisations, 2 of the 6 UOs were already using their organisational capabilities to access electricity and water for their communities,

By the end of 2004, UOs were supporting non – agricultural activities (electricity, fence making, HIV/Aids ..) in 114 villages

14 in Capricorn

76 in Vhembe

9 in Mopani

9 in Sekhukhune and

6 in Bohlabela

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General insights and implications

F4C enabled government & other stakeholders to jointly work with farmers to address their social & technical problems

Key to the strengthening of farmer organisations is facilitation skills and mentoring of officers during the field practice, but the effect is pronounced when used with codes for awareness creation.

Farmer organisations play a key role in agricultural innovation once they have the capacity to pool, aggregate and disseminate agricultural knowledge and information

Strong farmer groups are capable of providing basic services to their members that may not be necessarily be agriculturally related.

Strengthening farmer groups “to get the energy from below” can be used as a mechanism to channel resources from government & development agencies to communities.

Thank you so much

Malose Johannes (Joe) Ramaru ___________________________PICO Southern Africa Mobile: + 27 (0) 797907326 e mails: joe.ramaruj@picoteam.,org Website: www.picoteam.org

Eastern Cape in 2001

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