In this issue

Let us begin the year by sharing the results and lessons learned from some of the ongoing and completed research activities supported by IFAD grants in the Asia and the Pacific Region, and by introducing a new programme.

In this issue, well-known research centres such as the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) and World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) show different ways to tackle challenges that poor rural people encounter throughout Asia.

Patricia Biermayr presents the new ‘Participatory Research and Gender Analysis Programme’ being developed within the centres of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) to respond to research gaps and thus increase the efficiency and effectiveness of operations. Colleagues from ICRAF describe the creation of environmental services that involve private sector companies in Indonesia.

Barbara Rischkowsky from ICARDA illustrates some interesting results of a livestock producer survey and livestock market price monitoring study in three Central Asian countries. David E. Johnson and Digna O. Manzanilla from IRRI present highlights of the recent 9th Review Meeting of the Consortium for Unfavourable Rice Environments that focused on responses to changing climate in unfavourable rice environments.

Michael Kollmair and Dhrupad Choudhury from ICIMOD share a summary of an environmental analysis conducted in the Himalayas to help design effective strategies for developing sustainable value chains.

In 2011, the Asia and the Pacific Division will make an even greater effort to promote learning, sharing and cooperation by adopting and scaling up the Learning Routes programme, which is already being implemented in Latin America. Ariel Halpern from PROCASUR explains how the programme was introduced in Asia and the Pacific during the recent Annual Performance Review Workshop in China.

Enjoy the reading and best wishes for the New Year!

Laura Puletti, Acting Grants Coordinator and Martina Spisiakova, Newsletter Coordinator, Asia and the Pacific Division, IFAD

Repositioning gender-responsive participatory research in times of change

The Participatory Research and Gender Analysis Programme (PRGA) organized a Workshop on Repositioning Gender-Responsive Participatory Research in Times of Change. The workshop took place in the headquarters of the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Cali, Colombia from 16 to 18 June 2010. The event brought together more than 40 international experts involved in gender-sensitive issues and participatory research. The new approach presented during the workshop will influence IFAD’s future grant programme in Asia and the Pacific.

	Participants in the PRGA workshop

Participatory research is a proven methodology for generating appropriate technology (varieties, resource-management options, etc.) for resource-poor farmers and other natural-resource users. However, without attention to gender, it is possible for the research to cut out half of the population (usually the women). Men and women have different outlooks, approaches and roles in agriculture, and therefore often need different technologies. Making participatory research gender-responsive ensures that all elements of the population are involved in developing the technologies they need to improve their lives.

The participants represented the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), national agricultural research systems (NARS), academia, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), as well as regional organizations and the United Nations.

	Participants in the PRGA workshop

They reviewed important participatory and gender research streams, a demand analysis of participatory research and gender analysis conducted across the CGIAR and its partners in NARS, NGOs, regional agricultural organizations and academia, and discussed the state of the art and role of Gender-Responsive Participatory Research (GRPR) in agriculture. The participants also constructed the elements for a strategy and action plan for using GRPR in international agricultural research in the coming years.

The vision developed by the participants is to see GRPR institutionalized in an inclusive multi-stakeholder international agricultural research system (CGIAR, NARS, NGOs and academia) and included in all stages of the research cycle.

For this to happen, research and development need to include advocacy to promote the use of GRPR. As advocacy is not generally considered a major focus of the CGIAR, there is a major complementary role for other stakeholders such as NGOs. A multiplicity of stakeholders is also needed to ensure critical mass of GRPR practitioners.

In practice, GRPR is driven by end-users (usually farmers, both men and women), and empowers them to address their own needs. GRPR is responsive to changing conditions, whether in the social, bio-physical, economic or any other sphere. For GRPR to succeed, scientists and managers need to consider gender in their research practices, during evaluation and throughout the project preparation process. In many cases they will make changes as great as those they expect from farmers – where farmers may have to learn to experiment with ideas, researchers will be adopting practices (i.e. GRPR) that are a far cry from what they were most likely taught at university; working with farmers will be novel for many, and working with women even more unusual!

GRPR needs to be institutionalized urgently in the face of rapid climate change and food crises. There is currently a ‘window of opportunity’ afforded by a favourable policy environment, and the plethora of information and technology. Many of the players in the international research arena now actively promote the use of participatory approaches.

Various ‘Pathways for Success’ (strategic options)were identified at the workshop covering such areas as: funding; policies; conditions; culture; partnerships and linkages; awareness-raising and capacity-building; methods; accountability; and evaluation. For example, GRPR needs to be recognized among researchers and decision makers alike as a viable approach to agricultural research: ‘pathways’ for achieving this include support for ‘champions’ and advocacy at various levels. Moreover, organizational capacity in GRPR needs to be built by training researchers in the use of such methods. In a broader context, the diversity of stakeholders in any agricultural context suggests that research-and-development partnerships are likely to achieve more (in terms of benefits for the end-users) than organizations working alone; such partnerships can also serve to encourage newcomers to GRPR working alongside ‘old hands’.

With the CGIAR decision to discontinue its mechanism System-wide Programmes (of which PRGA was one), the PRGA programme has now transitioned into a core programme of CIAT. Its work will continue supporting GRPR across regions where CIAT operates: Africa, Latin America and Asia.

Patricia Biermayr, PRGA Regional Coordinator  

Read more

Participatory Research and Gender Analysis Program (PRGA)

Lake Singkarak in Indonesia: a successful voluntary carbon market and environmental services scheme

“The expectation of future benefits, including the carbon sale in ten years’ time, makes us feel responsible for our gardens,” said a member of carbon-market scheme under the IFAD-funded Rewards for Use of and Shared Investment in Pro-poor Environmental Services (RUPES) project. RUPES has been researching all aspects of environmental services in Southeast Asia since 2002. It is now in its second phase, building on the findings of its first four years of operation.

	A farmer planting a seedling

One of its research sites is at Lake Singkarak on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. Singkarak is the second-largest volcanic lake in the world, covering 10 400 hectares. The catchment around Lake Singkarak is considered a critical area for protecting the quality of water intake into the reservoir, which supplies water to millions of downstream users and supports the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of residents near its shores, most of whom are on or below the poverty line. In previous decades the catchment had been deforested and become overgrown by shrubs and grasses, with increasing levels of sedimentation and poor water quality. At one time the region supported high-quality clove farming but fell into disuse after attacks from pests, disease and forest fires. Consequently, the farmers, residents of the 13 villages that surround the lake, switched to other activities and the land degraded further.

	A farmer showing a seedling for planting

The RUPES project chose the site because of its potential for exploring how a payments for environmental services scheme might work to rehabilitate the land and provide rewards to farmers for protecting the watershed and improving the quality of water. The team’s scientists already had connections with the area through other research projects, which made collaborations with locals quicker and easier. As well as working with local farmers’ groups, government agencies and NGOs to identify environmental services that were already being provided already and could be improved, the RUPES team also began investigating whether a voluntary carbon market might be effective in the area. During the course of their research, a Dutch company, CO2 Operate BV, expressed interest in buying carbon that resulted from reforestation in the area, and all parties began to work on a market scheme.
 
In late 2009, the company agreed to provide an investment fund of USD 28 500 to plant 28 000 trees on 28 hectares of upstream land on the western part of the lake. In early 2010, the company expanded the agreement to another 21 hectares on the same hill. The addition of 40 more hectares is now being discussed. To date, 49 farmers have participated in the scheme as sellers of carbon. For each hectare, participating farmers receive IDR 10 million (USD 1 000) to prepare the land, buy seeds and plant and maintain trees that they have chosen. Ten years after planting, farmers will earn additional income based on the amount of carbon stocked in their trees.

	Planted land (left) and degraded land (right)

“While the buyers are interested in tree-carbon sequestration to meet their emission reduction obligation, the sellers are happy with the financial stimulus to repair their land. The project benefits both sides,” said Ms Beria Leimona, RUPES project manager.

As part of the process of establishing the market, scientists from the Jakarta-based World Agroforestry Centre, the host organization of the RUPES project, are conducting research around Lake Singkarak to develop more accurate and locally understandable ways to calculate the amount of carbon sequestered by trees. To date, there has been no method of easily applied and understood measurement for the trees that are favoured by the Singkarak farmers.

“Instead of using a generic formula, we are developing a more precise method to calculate carbon sequestered in clove trees, which represent 37 percent of the trees that farmers selected to plant in the area,” explained Mr Degi Harja, the Tree Dynamic Modeller at the Centre.

	Rehabilitation land and Lake Singkarat

“Once the clove-tree-specific methodology is developed, it will be used to calculate the amount of carbon stored each year. The result will help determine the amount to be ‘reimbursed’ to the farmers,” said Mr Harja.

The team has been working in Singkarak for seven years, firstly conducting a hydrological appraisal to reveal the problems in the watershed. This led to helping to establish local community institutions that could raise environmental awareness and deal with land tenure issues and other matters that had been identified in the research. So, the voluntary carbon market can be seen as the fruit of a long process.

“Bearing in mind the complexity and bureaucracy involved in implementing a clean-development mechanism under the Kyoto Protocol of the UNFCCC, the work at Singkarak can be seen as a successful breakthrough,” added Ms Beria.

Farmers are already enjoying the benefits. The scheme has attracted them back to their previously abandoned farming areas thanks to the type of tree planting. They have started planting crops in between the trees, and their income is improving as well as their food security.

“This is different from any other planting programmes,” said Mr Marjulis, a farmer with one hectare included in the scheme. “With this programme, we select the trees we want. We have clove, cocoa, suren, mahogany, avocado, durian and areca nut. In two years, we can harvest our areca nut, our avocado in four years, cloves and cocoa in five years. We can take everything we need from our garden. Fruits, grass or fuel wood. If we need timber, we’ll plant replacement trees before cutting. Cutting trees is not a problem as long as we keep at least 1000 standing trees per hectare. The expectation of future benefits, including the carbon sale in ten years’ time, makes us feel responsible for our gardens well.”

Furthermore, the rehabilitation has begun to stabilize the topsoil and reduce erosion and sediment flow into the reservoir, thereby benefiting the downstream users of the water. This success could lead to further rewards to the farmers, something the RUPES team plans to investigate so that more and more people can be rewarded for protecting environmental services and enjoying their benefits.

Leimona Beria, Project Coordinator, ICRAF Bogor
Rachman Pasha, Country Facilitator, Indonesia, ICRAF Bogor
Laura Puletti, RUPES Task Manager, IFAD

Read more:

• RUPES Technical Advisory Note
• RUPES Project

Middlemen in the Central Asian livestock markets: help or hindrance?

Results of a livestock producer survey and livestock market price monitoring study in three Central Asian countries revealed many interesting facts. One of them is the perceptions of smallholders about the role of middlemen in livestock markets. Both the survey and the study were conducted by the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) and national agricultural research institutions in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan and Tajikistan.

The livestock producer survey and livestock market price monitoring study were conducted within the IFAD-funded project “Community Action in Integrated and Market-Oriented Feed-Livestock Production in Central and South Asia” implemented by ICARDA.

	Mohair goats being sold at the livestock market in Sogd Province, Tajikistan

The market study consisted of two parts: a survey of 150 households producing livestock and weekly livestock price data collection from rural and urban livestock markets. It shows that livestock production remains one of the most important sources of livelihood in the study areas. According to the survey, livestock production accounted for 35 per cent of household income in 2007 in Kazakhstan, 37 per cent in Kyrgyzstan, 30 per cent in Northern Tajikistan and 39 per cent in Southern Tajikistan.

Middlemen act as a source of price information for smallholders living in remote areas. At the same time, some of the livestock producers consider these traders as problematic for their free market access by offering lower farm gate prices and creating space deficits at livestock markets. The table below illustrates the opinion of smallholders about the above mentioned controversial functions of intermediaries.

Percentage of smallholders who think that middlemen cause problems

	Gisar lambs being sold at the livestock market in Dushanbe, Tajikistan
	Livestock market in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

Problems that middlemen pose for livestock producers are mainly attributed to their control of prices at livestock markets, creation of deficit in space where farmers can hold their livestock while waiting for sales at market outlets, and low procurement farm gate prices offered to households. Sometimes, there is an excess of middlemen at the market who are simply speculating on livestock prices and trying to offer lower prices to farmers and sell animals at significantly higher prices.

Nevertheless, one should not underestimate the positive role of middlemen dealing with livestock in Central Asian countries. They have developed a good livestock procurement system at farm gates from smallholders who cannot afford to bring animals to the market. By selling an animal to the middlemen, producers can earn income that could not have been earned if there had been no middleman, due to high transportation cost. Thus, middlemen link owners of a few animals for sale living in remote areas to livestock markets. 

Another example of the favourable market behaviour of traders is that by selling fattened animals in periods of low livestock supply in livestock markets, traders ensure certain stability in prices and prevent supply shocks in livestock markets.

	Map of the project sites under the ICARDA project

Dr. Aden Aw-Hassan, Director of the Social, Economic and Policy Research
Program at ICARDA, Syria

Mr. Nariman Nishanov, Professional Officer on Socioeconomics at ICARDA
Regional Office for Central Asia and Caucasus, Uzbekistan.

Read more:

• Livestock producers’ survey - Kazakhstan

‘Climate-ready’ rice technologies in less favourable environments in Asia

Farmers in the rice-growing areas of South and Southeast Asia affected by drought, submergence and salinity, and those in the upland systems, are vulnerable to the effects of climate change. More than 100 million farmers are expected to be affected. Addressing this issue was the theme of a one-day symposium on responding to changing climate in the unfavourable rice environments. The symposium was coupled with the 9th Review Meeting of the Consortium for Unfavourable Rice Environments (CURE) that took place on 3-5 May 2010 in Siem Reap, Cambodia. CURE is a consortium, funded by IFAD, made up of ten member countries that focuses on developing options to reduce poverty among those dependent on rice production.

The symposium on responding to changing climate in the unfavourable rice environments brought together rice scientists, other research and extension practitioners, and policy makers of 23 institutions from Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam. The participants discussed the likely impacts of climate changes on the livelihoods of farmers, and possible strategies for farming practices to lessen the negative impacts on rice production. The main agenda revolved around the ‘climate-ready’ rice varieties and management practices that are now available for wider sharing to help farmers adapt to climate change.

	Saline-affected areas in eastern India

Changing climatic patterns will make rice production in unfavourable areas more challenging due to greater variability in the rainfall distribution in the monsoon period, increasing frequencies of drought and submergence, increasing temperatures, and elevated salinity in rice fields in coastal areas due to rising sea levels. More than 100 million resource-poor farmers are dependent on rice in the rainfed lowlands and uplands in Asia, and these are some of the most likely areas to be affected by environmental stresses. 

Production losses due to environmental stresses are already substantial. In a recent study in some countries of Southeast Asia, submergence alone reduces rice yields by 10-70 per cent in one cropping season. Drought events affect production on approximately 23 million hectares (17.3 per cent of rice lands in Asia), and are estimated to cause losses of up to 40 per cent. Rice in coastal areas can also be affected by salt-water intrusion from the sea, or in inland areas by either natural processes or poor water management leading to salt accumulation in the rice fields. Further, nearly 9 million hectares (7 per cent of total rice lands in Asia) in upland areas commonly suffer drought and soil-related stresses.

	Flooding is likely to become more frequent with climate change

Dr Robert Zeigler, Director General of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), emphasized that “researchers have been concerned about the impact of climate change on rice production before they became ‘buzz words.’” He explained that as early as the 1960s studies have been conducted on the effects of temperature on rice. Since 2002, CURE, a platform for collaborative research and partnerships, has been at the forefront of breeding well-adapted varieties. Subsequent speakers described how a broader spectrum of research is developing varieties and management practices to make rice crops more tolerant of the stresses likely to accompany climate change.

Stress-tolerant rice varieties are continuously being developed either through conventional breeding methods or the new marker-assisted backcrossing method that can now combine different desired traits of rice in one variety and reduce the breeding time by 6-10 years. For instance, breeding activities that combine genes responsible for submergence and salinity tolerance in a popular rice variety are now underway. With the new varieties now available, rice fields affected by stresses and left idle and unproductive for years can now benefit from reduced crop losses and appropriate management strategies to further improve productivity.

	Laotian farmers working in the field. Upland and lowland harvests are increasingly threatened by drought

A number of country cases were also presented illustrating how governments are attempting to lessen the impacts of climate change through adaptive measures. In Bangladesh, for instance, a saline-tolerant variety (BRRI dhan 47) can produce about 6 tons per hectare under saline conditions. In India, the success of a drought-tolerant variety (Sahbhagi dhan) has gained the support of farmers and district governments. In both countries, rapid seed multiplication for submergence-tolerant varieties such as BR11-Sub1 and Swarna-Sub1 is being undertaken. These varieties can provide a yield advantage of 1-4 tons per hectare at experimental sites. In other parts of Asia, different technology options are showing evidence of increased production and farm incomes. Such progress augurs well for farmers having ‘climate-ready’ options available to them to allow them to adapt to the predicted changes.

IFAD has partnered with IRRI and national institutions to deliver these technology options through the CURE platform. This ongoing partnership aims to create a ripple effect of positive impacts on the rice communities, especially those that are below the poverty threshold.

David E. Johnson, Senior Scientist (weed science) and CURE Coordinator; and Digna O. Manzanilla, Scientist (social science) and Associate CURE Coordinator

Read more:

• Consortium for Unfavorable Rice Environments (CURE)
• CURE on Facebook
• International Rice Research Institute (IRRI)
  

Understanding mountain specificities for value chain development in the Himalayas

The mountains of the Himalayan region are endowed with an extensive variety of high-value, low-volume products, such as non-timber forest products (NTFPs), medicinal and aromatic plants (MAPs) and honeybee products. However, the primary producers and collectors of these products generally receive a low share of the returns due to insufficient knowledge of market chains, lack of processing facilities, inadequate quality control, and other factors. With IFAD’s financial assistance, the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) works to address these problems through mountain value chain analysis and development.

	Organizing producers and institutionalizing contractual agreements with traders increase the benefits (bay leaf in Nepal)

Despite the relevance for mountain people’s livelihoods, and the quick growth of trade in NTFPs and MAPs, national and regional policies on harvesting, trading and marketing have not been adequately developed, adapted or implemented in the region. There is significant scope to generate more income locally by supporting mountain people to create new livelihood options and add value to high-value products and services.

Mountainous areas are often marginalized and in general do not have favourable conditions for agricultural production. However, some products and services offer comparative advantages as they are exclusive to the mountains. In the Himalayan area these include  temperate fruits that cannot be produced in the lowlands, high-mountain tourism products, and many MAPs and other NTFPs. Value chain analysis and development can be a significant tool for poverty reduction, particularly for mountain areas. The profitable participation of mountain communities in the existing value chains is often weak, but can be improved rapidly by upgrading functions(e.g. product diversification) and processes (organizing producers).

	Improving product quality and packing improves market access and fetches higher prices for mountain products (honey in Nepal)

Mountain value chains require a contextual analysis, as they are influenced by mountain specificities such as poor accessibility, marginality, fragility and diversity. Interventions in mountain value chains are interventions in an interrelated and fragile environmental and social system. Mountain people are closely interwoven with, and dependent on, their diverse natural environment. Interventions need to follow an integrated approach that reflects upon the effect of each action on the mountain system, be it economic, social or environmental. The demand for a contextualized value chain approach has increased and was consistently expressed during ICIMOD consultations with representatives of its eight regional member countries. The demand was also suggested by the IFAD Supervision Mission for ICIMOD Grant 773 –  Securing livelihoods in the uplands and mountains of the Hindu-Kush Himalayas; and Grant 1113 – Livelihoods and ecosystem services in the Himalayas: Enhancing adaptation capacity and resilience of the poor to climate and socioeconomic changes.

Within the IFAD technical assistance grant, ICIMOD followed a strategy of capacity building and technical support during the implementation phase of the following IFAD loan projects:

• Agricultural Marketing and Enterprise Promotion Project (AMEPP), Bhutan
•  Uttaranchal Livelihood Improvement Programme (ULIP), Meghalaya Livelihood Improvement Project (MLIP) and  North Eastern Region Community Resource Management Project (NERCORMP), India
• Leasehold Forestry and Livestock Promotion Project (LFLP) and Western Poverty Alleviation Project  (WUPAP), Nepal

MLIP and WUPAP were further involved in piloting value chain approaches for selected value chains.

As a regional knowledge centre for the greater Himalayas, ICIMOD emphasized regional learning and knowledge exchange among the different national IFAD loan projects and other relevant value chain projects. The overall focus was on mountain specificities and their influence, both negative and positive, on value chain development.

Building capacity and guiding implementation for IFAD-supported loan projects

Access to markets has been a serious concern in most IFAD-supported projects. This is more pronounced in the mountain context. For most IFAD project teams, the approaches to market linkages were product-based and predominantly on a case-by-case basis. A systematic approach to the issue of access to markets  is critical, and the value chain approach seemed the most appropriate answer.

The loan projects engaged in intensive trainings on value chains. The trainings provided an introduction to a systematic approach for observing and analysing a full range of mountain activities that are required to bring a product or service from conception through the different phases of production and delivery, to the final consumer. The project staff learned  how to map the complete input-output processes of a chain, i.e. mapping of actors, functions and processes. By concentrating on actual value chains, the projects analysed the functions that the primary actors performed to understand how they add and retain value. Such a clear picture of the actors’ functions allows the other actors to be identified who could perform these functions in a more efficient way.
 
Special attention was given to the selection of a value chain. The prioritization of value chains for pro-poor development objectives requires not only a thorough analysis of the chain, but also an in-depth understanding of the wider mountain context to determine whether the intervention is sustainable in the long term. Projects selected those products that were already part of mountain livelihoods rather than introducing products from outside. The products ranged from NTFPs like fibers, MAPs, high-value spices, services sectors like eco-tourism, and organic vegetables, milk and cheese.

With technical backstopping from ICIMOD, the loan projects engaged in a thorough value chain analysis to identify specific leverage points (upstream or downstream) along a chain,  which, if addressed/targeted, increase returns of poorer and small producers, traders or processors. Upstream value chain actors in the Himalayas are typically the small producers, traders or processors who are close to the origin of the product or service. Downstream value chain actors are typically the larger traders and processors who are closer to the end market.

Projects recognized that the approach of addressing specific leverage points is contrary to widespread development practices, which emphasize all efforts at the upstream level, thereby ignoring the fact that interventions elsewhere along the chain may lead to significantly higher benefits for pro-poor growth. Figure 1 provides an overview of how ICIMOD’s technical assistance for value chain development in mountain areas moved from a strong leadership role to build interest and capacity, to facilitation, and eventually to a backstopping role with main implementation ownership responsibilities for the loan projects.
 
Multi-stakeholder meetings represented a central instrument to identify opportunities for value chain development and to reach agreement and ownership of value chain interventions by the stakeholders. After the value chain analysis and mapping exercises, team members in WUPAP realized the need to foster partnerships with other stakeholders and players in the MAPs/NTFP sector to increase the benefits for the producers and collectors.

Team members quickly established linkages and forged a coalition with the Micro-enterprise Development Programme (MEDEP) supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), MAP traders associations (like the Jadi Buti Association of Nepal) and actors from the private sector (like Alternate Herbals Pvt Ltd) to strengthen linkages between upstream-downstream actors. Better understanding of the entire value chain, its economic benefits at different levels, the required qualities of the products, and increase flow of market information among and between the stakeholders led to increased benefits for the poor collectors and producers.

Additionally, based on the regional character of ICIMOD, regional learning and knowledge sharing were a prime strategy to build capacity among IFAD loan projects. A WUPAP team, consisting of project team members and local resource persons, visited Chattisgarh, India to learn from the experiences of ICIMOD’s Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Programme in Asia (MAPPA) partners. Team members were exposed to community-based conservation and management of MAPs, value addition through community-based enterprises, quality-ensured value chain of MAPs and a certification model based on local standards and actors.

Figure 1: Building capacity for value chain development in the Himalayas
 (changed)

However, as noted above, the capacity and enabling process focuses on more than the conventional analysis of production and markets. The learning and application process was set in the frame of mountain specificities and their relevance for mountain value chains (see Figure 2). This frame of mountain specificity was supported by poverty, gender and environmental analyses.

Figure 2: The mountain-specific value chain framework

The pro-poor bias and cross-cutting perspective of the value chain approach makes it particularly significant for mountain development, as production and socio-environmental imperatives are closely integrated. Thus, value chain analysis enables us to identify value chains that have particularly high potential to benefit both mountain communities and their environment, to analyse actors in existing chains that reap the greatest or smallest benefits, to understand why this is the case, and to formulate feasible strategies to positively benefit mountain people.

Lessons for technical assistance value chain development in the Himalayas

Establishing market linkages for poor and marginalized producers is one of the prime challenges of most IFAD investment projects. More often than not, project team members succeed in establishing linkages for one or two products, but the issues of product quality, volume and steady supply, and of organizing producers into effective producer groups constrain long-term sustainability. The underlying cause of these persistent challenges is the lack of a systematic approach to marketing products. It is in this context that the value chain approach was found to be so appropriate.

With capacity building, project teams could select products, and analyse and map the corresponding chain in a systematic and holistic manner. In this way, they were able to understand the chain and identify leverage points where project interventions could have maximum benefits for the beneficiaries and also ensure long-term sustainability. With the pilots and constant backstopping, project teams developed a coherent and systematic strategy. The value chain approach has helped projects to develop a process-oriented approach to marketing rather than a product approach – this has been the most significant contribution of the grant.

Brigitte Hoermann, Dhrupad Choudhury, Michael Kollmair, Sustainable Livelihoods and Poverty Reduction, International Centre for integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), Kathmandu, Nepal

Read more

• Integrated Value Chain Development as a Tool for Poverty Alleviation in Rural Mountain Areas (2010)

Learning Highways: a new opportunity to share experiences in overcoming rural poverty in Asia and the Pacific

	Innovation champions presenting their activities during the China workshop

IFAD recognizes that knowledge management, promotion of cooperation, and development of information exchange networks between rural development practitioners in the South can considerably reduce learning costs when scaling up successful innovations and best practices. The Annual Performance Review Workshop, organized by the Asia and the Pacific Division from 1-3 November 2010 in Nanning, China, focused on these aspects. A new initiative called ‘Learning Highways’ was launched at the workshop.

Through the Corporación Regional PROCASUR, a Latin American organization that specializes in capacity building for rural development and poverty reduction, IFAD developed an innovative knowledge management methodology – Learning Routes – to promote South-South cooperation acquired during the implementation of programmes and projects. Its purpose is to expand the adoption of successfully applied innovations and to contribute to the exchange of experiences among programme and project implementers.

Being piloted in Latin America and Africa, the Learning Routes have proven to be a powerful tool for capacity building, identifying and systematically organizing best practices, and promoting the processes of adoption of innovation. The approach will now be applied in the Asia and the Pacific context through the Learning Highways Programme.

The objective of the programme is to increase knowledge and capacity for adopting and scaling up best practices and innovations among IFAD stakeholders in the region by:

• building the human capital of rural communities
• stimulating scaling up of the best available solutions to increase the effectiveness of development projects and programmes
• improving the results and impact of development activities
• enhancing the use of local champions as providers of training and technical assistance
• encouraging the use of the Learning Routes methodology in selected IFAD operations in the region.
• The programme will facilitate knowledge sharing and learning of men and women farmers, microentrepreneurs, small-scale producers and their associations, technical project staff, implementing institutions and other development professionals, central and local government officials and policy makers involved in implementing rural development programmes and projects.
•  The programme will also address the needs of specific groups such as rural women, youth and indigenous people. Its potential clients will include all those people involved in the projects and programmes funded by IFAD in 23 countries of the region, with the possibility of including development interventions funded by other donors.

Two concrete activities emerged from the Annual Performance Review workshop, thanks to the Innovation Marketplace and the Knowledge Business Tables, where the South-South supply and the demand-side met. IFAD-supported projects from Mongolia and Viet Nam are planning a Learning Route to Peru in February 2011. The themes chosen for the exchange are competitive allocation of resources, natural resource management and the provision of financial and non financial services. There are more Learning Routes to come in 2011.

Ariel Halpern , Coordinación Rutas de Aprendizaje, PROCASUR Corporation

Read more:

• PROCASUR

Upcoming events and missions

• IFAD Governing Council, 19-20 February 2011, IFAD Headquarters, Rome
• Conference on New Directions for Smallholder Agriculture, 24-25 January 2011, IFAD Headquarters, Rome

Afghanistan

• Supervision mission – Rural Microfinance and Livestock Support Project, March 2011

Bhutan

• Start-up workshop – Market Access and Growth Infrastructure Project, January-February 2011, Thimphu, Bhutan

Cambodia

• Design completion mission – Community-Based Agricultural Productivity Project, February 2011

India

• Training on Multi Poverty Assessment Tool, 17-19 January 2011, Jodhpur, Rajasthan
• Training on Monitoring and Evaluation and Results and Impact Management System, 20-22 January 2011, Jodhpur, Rajasthan
• Meeting of project gender focal points, 23-25 January 2011, Jodhpur, Rajasthan
• Tripartite portfolio review meeting, January 2011, New Delhi
• Joint review mission – North Eastern Region Community Resource Management Project for Upland Areas, 29 January -- 11 February 2011
• Start-up workshop – Women’s Empowerment and Livelihoods Programme in the Mid-Gangetic Plains, 9-11 February 2011, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh

Indonesia

• Inception mission – Coastal Community Development Project, March 2011
• Loan negotiations – Smallholder Livelihood Development Programme in Maluku and North Maluku, March 2011, Rome

IFAD useful links

• Facebook
• Twitter
• IFAD social reporting blog
• YouTube
• Blip.Tv
• Slideshare
• PICASA