Question 3 (opens 19 Nov.)

The losses incurred in developing countries are largely due to infrastructural constraints related to poor transport, storage, processing and packaging facilities, in addition to capacity gaps that result in inefficient production, harvesting, processing and transport of food.

There should be strong government commitment and support for ICT development in the form of policy incentives, increasing levels of investment in ICT R&D projects, accelerated investment in ICT infrastructure and telecommunication facilities, increase manpower development and skills training in ICT.

Public sectors should support ICT to:

(1)  Reinforce producers in achieving economic, social and ecological sustainability to increase productivity and improve quality;

(2)  Support better terms of trade and organize access to financial services;

(3)  Develop a range of instruments for training, quality management  financing, exchange of experience, management, efficiency and sales;

(4)  Increase services used by farmers and other producers;

(5)   Link farmers with public support agencies and private sector buyers;

(6)  Encourage creation of producer organizations to procure high-quality inputs in bulk to reduce costs;

(7)  Enhance logistics - public distribution of commodities;

(8)  Use producer organizations to establish marketing partnerships with processors and retailers to promote socially beneficial products and create brands;

(9)  Create provisions for credit in conjunction public and private sector lender;

(10)  Enhance public R&D and production to develop socially beneficial inputs to production

(11)  Enhance extension services or technical assistance to producers in farming practices (training, information dissemination)

(12)  Promote infrastructure development (public infrastructure - roads, storage  facilities);

(13)  Promote public distribution of commodities - partnerships between public sector and producer groups/NGOs to jointly finance and maintain roads, storage facilities;

(14)   Enhance information services development of MIS to integrate government statistics agencies with private producer associations, use of IT to distribute market information;

(15)  Develop and enforce public standards and regulations on food safety inspection and monitoring to manage quality and food safety in conjunction with government and producer groups;

(16)  Develop coordination mechanisms to ensure healthy competition and market exchanges.

I think that Fatima has covered most of the points, so I would like to go at this from a different perspective. As you may have noticed from my other posts, my focus has been on eductaion and empowerment (the two go hand-in-hand).

I think that the primarly role of governement should be in providing basic infrastructure (roads, rail, water, IT infrasturcuture) and a legal and commercial system for producers to thrive in. Beyond start up grants government should NOT be involved. Frankly speaking, I believe that the whoel purpose of this exercise is to help  to nuture independent self-sustaning producer groups. Regular involvement of the government presents many pitfalls on the route to this goal; corruption, dependency, lack of respect for local knowledge, to name a few.

I am pessimistic that a sudden spike in governement interest will be sustained enough to have the long term impact that the farmers need. I beleive that this expertise and assistance will need top come from NGOs, NPOs and the local communities. Government assistance is too prone to shift with the political winds.

Regards,

peter

Hi Fatima! Hello Peter! Your discussion on the public role is indeed very interesting, that it warranted my attention. Seemingly this leaves just a tiny open space for contribution. Anyway, I simply would like to emphasize the role of partnership not just between and  among the public sector but with the private sector as well. PPP is a very important concept to tackle at this point in time. This opinion will also somehow touches on the role of the government that being prone to corruption, dependency and lack of respect for local- as Peter puts it. The public (inclusive of the government) and the private sectors both have to form partnership and work hand in hand for improving producers’ production capacity, access and delivery or marketing, etc. Taking a closer look and learning from our African friends, the innovative project design through an e-government PPPs in Ghana  shows how a joint venture between government revenue agencies and a private sector partner proved advantageous on both sides.

The e-Ghana Project (FY07-FY12, IDA) has an innovative design featuring a public-private partnership (PPP) to transform revenue collection, using a joint venture between Government revenue agencies and a private sector partner. The project has helped the Government attract US$40 million in private sector investment for developing and deploying an electronic tax application to automate revenue agencies and the Registrar General's Department. Upon completion, this application is expected to help the Government increase compliance and transparency, and broaden the tax base, while reducing the incidence of fraud, upgrading Government employee skills, and developing a template for upgrading other agencies. (cf. http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTINFORMATIONANDCOMMUNICATIONANDTECHNOLOGIES/0,,contentMDK:20687836~menuPK:282840~pagePK:210058~piPK:210062~theSitePK:282823,00.html)

Dear Dolores,

      I concur with your observation on the role of the private sector in tackling societal problems, notwithstanding ICT in agricultural sector. The private sector had been in the past a good partner of the government and other private sector groups in solving problems and addressing concerns.

      However, I limited my response below to public sector involvement as that what the question warrants.

                                                         Regards,

                                                         Andy

      I agree with you too, Dolores and Fernando. Like for instance, tapping  the support of the telecom/ICT companies to get involved (perhaps through sponsorships and trainings). This way, we are shooting many  birds in one stone like advertising their products and at the  same time getting  the farmers  be trained on ICT and eventually, farmers going through  networking with product organizations and other stakeholders.

Hi Dolly!

Yes indeed!  Public-private partnerships in the Philippines is starting to take off, as the private sector is tapped to partner with the government, esp. in infrastructure projects like the building.improvement of the roads in the rural areas, making the transport of goods from the farm to the market more accessible and easy both for the producers and consumers.  If the delivery of goods and services are facilitated by the government, it would also follow that the costs for the produce would not be sold at higher prices.

What I'm trying to say is, if projects such as infrastructure, ICT or the delivery of services, when it is collaborated by the government and private sector, can go a long way and reach even the least serviced group of people.

There are many ways that that public and private partnership can foster, but it won't either hurt to involve other sectors such as NGOs, academe, and the community to get involved either as recipients or volunteers, in the development process, all of which entails enhancement of skills through training, education (both formal and  non-formal) and other forms of assistance.

Peter, 

I don't want to sound like a complete skeptic but I'm not convinced that all governments are interested in promoting self-reliant and independent rural cooperatives and producer organizations . Many governments in developing countries seem more obsessed with control and submission. In other words there is a political dimension to the broad based diffusion of ICT in rural areas that nobody has yet touched upon .Some governments find broad based rural participation in decision making a threat.They prefer top-down forms of management

John

John

I entirely agree with you; that is why it is important to suggest government to work at the same time on IC instruments and vehicles as well as the legal framework to allow meeting and free communication between producers in and out of the country. 

In some countries, producer organizations have no right to have a radio.

Pierre

Hi John,

Thank you for your comment which I seemed to have missed (not having a quick thread sort options makes it a biot confusing to keep track of posts at times) . 

I don't want to sound like a complete skeptic but I'm not convinced that all governments are interested in promoting self-reliant and independent rural cooperatives and producer organizations . Many governments in developing countries seem more obsessed with control and submission.

We seem to be in agreement, as I posted above:

I am pessimistic that a sudden spike in governement interest will be sustained enough to have the long term impact that the farmers need. I beleive that this expertise and assistance will need top come from NGOs, NPOs and the local communities. Government assistance is too prone to shift with the political winds.

My following posts aslo show my skepticism in government action.

Cheers

Peter

<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Hi, Peter,<div></div><div>I think you are absolutely right: governments should focus on providing public goods, mainly as you mentioned, rural infrastructure. &nbsp;In terms of ICT, governments may want to invest in partnerships with the private sector, in order to ensure that remote areas have access to low-cost internet and cell phone coverage. &nbsp;Grants to help producer organizations finance start up costs of investing in ICT (such as computers) can also be justified, as well as offering training for producer organizations' staff on the use of ICT, for example the use of software for financial management. &nbsp;Governments should also ensure that research institutions publish their research results in a form that producer organizations can readily use to communicate to their members the information that can be of use for their members (through their members' mobile phones for example, or their own web page). &nbsp;Often, research results are not published in a form that can be readily used by producer organizations and their members. &nbsp;I would say therefore, that governments should help producer organizations with the content that can be communicated via ICT rather than in the hardware itself. &nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>Marie-Helene</div><div>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;<br><div><div>