VALUE CHAIN DEVELOPMENT AND SMALLHOLDER FARMERS: PROMISES AND PITFALLS Eric Torto

… Reductionist approach to knowledge leads most development specialists to become one-eyed giants: scientists lacking knowledge. They analyze, prescribe and act as if man could live by bread alone, as if human destiny could be stripped of its material dimensions. (Goulet, D., p. 481, in Development Experts: The one-eyed giants, 1980) Introduction  Why the increasing adoption of Value Chain Development approach by the international development agencies and institutions? Conceptual Roots of the Value Chain Development Approach  Wallerstein and Hopkins (Commodity chain of the Political Economy of World Systems Theory)  W.H. Friedland- Commodity systems, in Sociology of Agriculture  M.Porter- Competitive Advantage, Management Science

Empirical Case: Northern Ghana Rural Program  Background  Specific Objective- To develop remunerative and inclusive agricultural and food commodity chains  Main Underlying Assumption- Markets are central to agriculture and rural development Programme Components  Commodity Chain Development  Rural Infrastructure Development  Improving Access to Financial Services  Programme Co-ordination, Management, Monitoring and Evaluation

Intervention Processes  Adoption of technocratic Private-Public-Producer- Partnership model  Expert knowledge driven technical assistance provided by IFAD Mixed Critical Outcomes  Productivity  Marketing  Food availability  income stability  Financial Indebtedness  Problematic targeting (vulnerable population, youth and women)  Low adoption of some newly introduced crops, particularly, the Non- traditional agricultural exports. Significant constraints  Neglect of off-farm activities  High cost of inputs  Adverse local politics and governance  Underinvestment in agricultural sector and rural infrastructure

Lessons  Too much focus on income  Overarching focus on functional upgrading  Ignore the key role of social relations and the local dynamics of livelihoods  Value chain development lacks a coherent/holistic framework to understand the complexity of chronic rural poverty  Terms of market integration matter Concluding Remarks  Power relations dynamics and potential for conflict of interest do not disappear through partnership  Interventions are made in complex systems  Relational understanding of poverty and inequality in a conflict-sensitive region would be helpful  Active role of the state urgently needed  Value Chain Development needs to return to its critical tradition Thank you.