Round 1

May 2010

Best Practices & Innovations (BPI) Initiative

Agriculture & Rural Livelihoods

Food Security and Integrated Development: A Market Oriented Approach

ADRA International
Best Practice Award for Access to Markets

Overview:
Under its USAID-funded project, “Food Security: A Market-Oriented Approach, Supported by Integrated
Development for Bolivia,” ADRA (Adventist Development and Relief Agency) targeted smallholder
farmer households with a demand-driven approach to enhance the use of market information for farm-
level strategic decision-making and thereby increase incomes. Expanded knowledge of markets, value
chains and business opportunities enabled farmers to select highly demanded crops, enhance farming
practices, and improve product quality in response to market specifications. By emphasizing the market
and facilitating market linkages, sales value experienced a 50-fold increase from 2002 to 2008, despite
the occurrence of El Niño. This suggests that smallholder farmers respond positively to economic
incentives and that facilitating market linkages helps spur interest, increases farmers’ participation and
can improve technology adoption.

Intervention Details:
Location Bolivia – 77 communities in four municipalities (Camargo, San Lucas,
Incahuasi, and Culpina) in two provinces (Nor Cinti and Sud Cinti) in the
Department of Chuquisaca
Start Date January 1, 2002
End Date April 30, 2009
Scale State/Provincial/Sub-national
Target Population Smallholder farmer households
Number of beneficiaries 8,500
Partners USAID, FONCRESOL, IDEPRO, Municipalities, Program for the Support of
the Agriculture Sector of Chuquisaca - PASACH; The Foundation for the
technological and agriculture development of the valleys - FDTAs; CARE;
Program for the Support of the Rural Micro enterprise in Latin America
and the Caribbean – PROMER (Chile); The research, Formation and
Extension in Agricultural Mechanization center - CIFEMA; Productivity
Biosphere and Environment - PROBIOMA. PRODEPE
Funders/Donors USAID
Total Funding $14,160,634
Website www.adra.org
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About the Intervention

1. Background/Context
What challenges or problems were the interventions designed to address? Why was the intervention
needed?
Poverty is one of the most prominent causes of food insecurity in Bolivia and is most extreme among
the rural population. Barriers to increasing rural household income are lack of water for irrigation, lack
of access to improved seeds and farming technologies, lack of knowledge of market demands in terms
of prices, quantities, qualities and types of produce; and a low level of engagement of smallholder
farmers in agriculture value chains for specific products. Therefore, the Income Generation Component
(IGC) of this program used a market-driven approach to empower families and communities for a
holistic and sustainable improvement in their lives through an increase in rural household incomes.1 At
the time the project started, the major constraints that were indentified included:
• Low agricultural productivity
• Geographical isolation
• Weak and underdeveloped market linkages
• Water scarcity and lack of access to water for irrigation
• Degraded natural resource base
• Lack of productive infrastructure
• Lack of agricultural support services, technical and financial

2. Goals & Objectives

What were the intervention’s goals and objectives? What was it meant to accomplish?
The main objective of this component was to increase family incomes in areas with food insecurity by
helping rural families increase their agricultural productivity and improve their access to markets. The
specific objectives of the IGC were:
1. Increased productivity of marketable produce by targeted households
a. Increased number of farmers utilizing improved techniques in the production of selected
marketable produce
b. Increased number of farmers accessing credit-for-inputs in the production of selected
marketable produce
c. Increased number of new hectares of irrigated lands

2. Increased agriculture-related income of targeted households

a. Reduced post harvest loss of selected produce
b. Increased marketability of selected produce
c. Increased farmers’ knowledge of local and regional markets for agricultural produce
d. Increased access to market in targeted communities

1
ADRA implemented between 2002 – 2008 a P.L. 480 Title II project called “Food Security: A market oriented approach
supported by integrated development for Bolivia”. This program, which utilized an integrated approach to address food
security, included the innovative Income Generation Component (IGC) to successfully achieve its objectives.
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3. Key Activities
Please describe the intervention’s main activities. What role did each partner play? If applicable, how is
the intervention innovative?
The overarching strategy proposed by this program for increasing rural incomes focused on increasing
productivity and market access, as well as ensuring adoption of environmentally sound practices. To
increase incomes, ADRA promoted the production of a set of agriculture products that had the
potential to easily increase yield, and generate profit based on market demand. ADRA offered a
package of technical and marketing services on those crops through farmers’ groups and large
stakeholder-driven producers’ associations. Farmers groups played an important role in the delivery of
ADRA’s technical assistance on farming management practices, while the associations were key for
commercializing smallholder farmers. Higher economy of scale and better product quality leveraged
farmers’ bargaining power to enhance their access to input and output markets.
The project worked with local universities and local agro-industrial entities to determine and/or refine
the best technical assistance package for each targeted crop. Upon finalization of the technical
packages, ADRA worked with these same entities to train/refresh its extension agents in those
technical services.

Delivery of the technical assistance through Technical Assistance Groups (TAGs)

 Organizing TAGs: Farmers that met the selection criteria were organized into technical
assistance groups based on consideration of proximity, friendship where possible, and affinity
with products. Groups were based on the crops that farmers were engaged so each crop had
its own TAGs through which the technical assistance was delivered.
 Training in demonstration farms: ADRA worked with the group to select at least one farm in
the group to act as a demonstration plot for targeted crops. Trainings were given in
appropriate agricultural management practices and harvest and post-harvest handling.
Farmers whose farms were selected as demonstration plots were required to provide technical
assistance to other farmers in their TAGs.
 Farmers assisted with financial services: ADRA placed a special attention in facilitating
farmer’s access to financial services. The project worked with local NGOs such as FADES and
PRODEM and buyers for them to provide credit to farmers to buy agricultural inputs for the
selected market crops. This credit service was market-driven and channeled through the TAGs
and producers associations.

Organizing Producers’ Association and Market Facilitation through ASCs

As TAGs were mainly an instrument for technology transfer, so producer associations were formed to
address efficiently the constraints that individual TAGs were facing. With assistance from their
Agricultural Service Centers (ASCs), the associations were able to effectively identify, produce, store,
and sell collectively profitable crops to markets. Main activities carried out by the project on marketing
include:
1. Formation of producer associations: TAGs in the municipalities were federated to establish a
producer association. Six associations were established in San Lucas, Camargo, Incahuasi and
Culpina municipalities. Training in leadership and management, organization, accounting,
costing, business planning, access and use of information, literacy, etc. were conducted to
strengthen each association’s capacity for growth.
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2. Organizational strengthening: The project envisioned those associations to be self-managed

and sustainable rural enterprises. So using the Rural Development Entrepreneurial methodology
(created by International Labor Organization), ADRA trained farmers trough different modules in
business skill entrepreneurship and management to enhance leaders’ capacity to structure and
manage their associations as well as seek new business opportunities that can benefit their
members.
3. Strategic alliances: The associations established agreements with many private and public
institutions for the provision of several services such as agricultural inputs, tools, containers and
information. The associations also signed commercial agreements with larger buyers such as
ASOMEX, LATCO, NATURALEZA and Industrias del Valle for commercialization of produce.
4. Productive investments and product quality: To enhance access to markets besides receiving
training in post-harvest handling (grading, quality control, packaging, storing and transport),
product presentation and quality, associations also invested in tools, equipment and packaging
materials to improve produce presentation and transport to markets.
5. Exchange of experience at national and international level: Aiming to creating training and
exchange experiences for the program participants, ADRA promoted several exchange visits
between associations to help associations in early stages of development to learn with the
established ones. The project also facilitated exchange visits with the Program for Rural Small
Business Enterprises (PROMER, Chile) which helped farmers to get acquainted with the work
that associations are doing in other contexts.
6. Marketing activities: Four main marketing activities promoted by the project were:
 Market study: The project carried out a market study to analyze the profit potential of
target crops and identify potential new ones. As a result of this institutions, new crops
such as garlic and barley were added to the list of selected crops;
 Market research and surveys: To increase marketing opportunities, market investigations
were organized to identify potential new buyers and also learn about markets main
indicators in major market centers (price, demand, supply, etc.). The Leaders of
associations were trained in how to conduct these market researches;
 Participation in business networking forums: The leaders of the associations participated
in business networking forums to negotiate purchasing of inputs and selling of produce
with different stakeholders;
 Participation in itinerant fairs: Many agricultural fairs were organized in different cities to
promote products and boost sales.
7. ASCs as a marketing supporting facility: As the TAGs determined the need for produce
consolidation and group marketing, as well as development of other economic activities (such as
transportation businesses), the program facilitated the establishment of ASCs at municipality
level. ASCs helped to address issues such as small economy of scale, post-harvest losses, access
and use of market information, and access to market. ASCs were the locus for commercial
information collection and dissemination, harvest consolidation, grading, limited processing and
packaging, sales, and other commercial activities.
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4. Effectiveness/Evidence of Success
What were the results of the intervention, and how were they measured? Who and how many people
benefited from the intervention? What evidence do you have to support these results (e.g. field visit
reports, internal tracking & monitoring, internal or external evaluations, etc.)?
To adequately analyze and document the results of this program, ADRA and the other USAID Title II-
funded project implementers in Bolivia hired an external consultant to carry out a Final Evaluation (FE)
of the interventions. This evaluation was conducted by a multidisciplinary team and both quantitative
and qualitative data were analyzed. The FE showed that the results of this IG program have been
impressive. This was particularly true after the Mid Term Evaluation (MTE), when the market approach
started to be more prominent based on the value chain framework, especially in terms of increases in
the value of sales and household agriculture-related incomes. Major changes were also apparent in the
knowledge and attitudes of project clients, with many at the time of the FE showing to be more market
oriented and entrepreneurial, and having a better understanding of the profitability and cost and
benefits of activities. Some highlights of the main project results2:
1. The value of sales through forward contracts and producers associations increased significantly
from only $7,000 dollars in 2002 to almost $360,000 dollars in 2008. This amount might have
increased even more substantially in 2007 and 2008 had it not been for El Niño, which had a
negative effect on production and post harvest losses.
2. The average beneficiary household’s income doubled between the baseline in 2002 and the
final survey in 2008. It rose from average annual income of $941 dollars in 2002 to about $1,986
in 2008.
3. Sales through ASCs had greatly increased. Onion sales through ASCs in 2003 were only 197.7MT
but had increased to 487.4 MT by 2006. Broad beans had increased from 18.4MT in 2002 to
85.5MT in 2006. Sales of peaches, 3.5MT in 2002, had increased to 67.3MT in 2006. During the
life of the project, seven Associations were supported in the commercialization of 13 crops with
a sold total volume of 4.387.18 MT. 3
Besides the quantitative data that the FE collected, the qualitative information is illustrative of the
great impact of the intervention. Some examples are as follows:
1. Improvements in household well-being. The farmers interviewed mentioned the differences
that the program had made in their lives. Most talked about using increases in income to
improve their diets. Some also talked about making housing improvements. Most also cited as
one of the benefits being able to keep their children in school.
2. Investing in their businesses. Most farmers interviewed also cited using part of their income to
invest in farm operations. This included buying fertilizers and improved seeds, buying animals
and investing in equipment and machinery.
3. Increases in entrepreneurship and Self-Reliance: The FE field visits revealed an outstanding
improvement in their knowledge and attitudes about business, markets, profitability and
competitiveness. Farmers and other community members seemed much more
entrepreneurial, and more knowledgeable about business and markets.

2
Please see the “Final Evaluation of the 2002-2008 Bolivia Title II Development Assistance Programs.”
3
This information was taken from the Mid Term Evaluation of this Title II Development Assistance Program.
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All four USAID Bolivia Title II project implementers ended their project with a market approach that
helped them obtain good results. However, ADRA was the only one that started the project in 2002
with a clear market orientation and this helped ADRA to achieve very quick results in terms of increase
in sales and incomes. The results of the MTE showed that clearly it was the threshold for the other
implementers to make adjustments in their strategies to make it more demand oriented. As quoted in
the FE report: “it is this market orientation and the results that were achieved that make the Bolivian
Title II IG programs noteworthy and potentially important as a model for IG programs in other
countries”.

ADRA’s IG program benefitted 8,500 persons in 77 communities in four municipalities of the

department of Chuquisaca in Bolivia.

5. Equitable Outcomes
Describe how the intervention enabled the participation of and produced benefits for women. Please
provide data showing the comparative benefits for men and women. If the intervention focused
exclusively on men, please explain the rationale for doing so.
Women’s participation in the program went through several phases. At the beginning women
participated actively in the post-harvest activities such as selection and classification of cash crop
products. Then, they started to participate as members of the farmers’ association boards, as well as
participating in all technical trainings, market appraisals, fairs, preparation of agri-business plans, and
post-harvest processes. By the end of the project, 10-20% of farmers’ association board members were
women. In other words, women started out participating in simple activities and, as result of project
interventions, by the end a number had assumed leadership roles.

6. Efficiency/Cost-Effectiveness
How do the intervention’s relative costs compare to the outcomes achieved? Please provide evidence
to support your answer.
While ADRA has not conducted an economic analysis of the intervention costs compared with the
outcomes achieved, the final evaluation found that sales value experienced a 50-fold average increase;
while target households doubled their income between baseline and end of the project. It rose from
about US$ 941 in 2002 to approximately a $1,986 in 2008.

7. Sustainability
Is this intervention sustainable in the long-term, socially, financially and environmentally? Please
describe the steps the intervention took to ensure services or impacts will be sustained over the long
term, and the role of local partners or the beneficiary community in continuing the intervention.
ADRA envisioned the farmers’ associations and ASCs as key to the sustainability of its IG program. As
part of its sustainability strategy, ADRA made a concerted effort to strengthen the management
capacity of these organizations and to transform them into true member-driven commercial
enterprises. ADRA managed to consolidate and strengthen the linkages between beneficiaries and
associations and their buyers, and develop strategic alliances with other service providers. This latter
effort was made envisioning that these organizations would be willing and able to take over some of
the support functions ADRA had been providing to its clients. ADRA also looked to local institutions and
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authorities as sources of funds as well as information and technical assistance, and encouraged them
to play a more active role in promoting the economic development of their municipalities. ADRA also
helped strengthen their capacities. This included helping establish the technical units in the
municipalities (UDEMs), which would be able to take over some of the marketing support activities
that ADRA had been providing. The program also envisioned this unit as playing a more technical role
in developing proposals for inclusion in the municipal budgets.

Besides the measures that ADRA took to ensure that activities are financially and socially sustainable,
the program also promoted environmentally sound practices. This was done not only through the
direct activities of the IG program, but also through a Natural Resources Management component
aimed at spreading messages and building individuals and community capacities in the following areas:
• Reduce soil erosion
• Improve soil fertility
• Enhance communities’ capacity to adequately manage natural resources
• Establish appropriate and sustainable natural resources project for domestic usage

8. Challenges & Lessons Learned

What challenges or obstacles did you face and how were they addressed? What are the most important
lessons a reader should take from this practice?
One of the main obstacles that the project faced was the lack of commitment of the private and public
sectors in the early stages of the program. But the rapid results achieved by the project, and ADRA’s
proactive attitude in considering them key players for the sustainability of the activities, contributed to
several institutions joining ADRA’s effort and taking on important roles that have continued beyond the
end of the project. The decision of the project to promote crops that had the potential to present rapid
results in terms of increases in productivity and sales was key, and helped the program overcome a key
constraint.

Key lessons learned:

1. Income generation programs are more successful if they are market-oriented.
2. Smallholder farmers can participate in production of high quality crops and access markets.
Capacity building support is the key element that they are lacking.
3. The value chain competitiveness strategy needs to be stakeholders driven. Without
stakeholder participation and coordination, value chains are not sustainable and benefit is
unequal.
4. Value chains are not static so building and enhancing diversity and flexibility is important.
5. Organization is essential for small farmers to achieve economies of scale, and to accessing
business development services and markets.
6. Strengthening the management capacity is particularly important to convert groups of poor
farmers into successful and sustainable producer organizations.
7. A number of years may be needed for the program to expand beyond the first adopters and
include the majority of community members.
8. Poor infrastructure including roads, storage and irrigation facilities could be restrictive for
increasing incomes. Market oriented IG programs need to plan beyond the basic capacity
building and facilitation activities that they traditionally undertake.
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9. Enabling Factors & Recommendations

What factors were critical to the success of the intervention? What should others know about this
intervention before replicating it elsewhere?
During the implementation ADRA Bolivia found that the following factors were critical for the success
of the intervention:
 Since farmers’ association play a key role in this market approach, it was important to
strengthen their capacity. For this purpose, ADRA implemented a plan for organizational
strengthening of these entities targeting especially the leaders of these associations.
 The associations were organized based on crops with high market potential.
 A radio program using local language, “Together is Better,” was aired to promote the
importance and benefits of marketing in association as opposed to individual sales. The
program was a good approach to produce the change in behavior.
 Associations were equipped with collecting facilities through alliances and partnerships with
municipalities and other organizations. Farmers also had to cover part of the investment.
 Creation of value added products using the crops promoted by the program (grape juice,
broad-bean cookies, etc.)
 Provision of entrepreneurial training to increase their leaders’ skills to manage associations
with a business approach.
 Implementation of the “Departmental Service of Market Intelligence Gathering,” and creation
of the Local Board for Economic Promotion in the four municipalities of intervention. The latter
is the forum for public and private sector to make agreements for the promotion of economic
development within the municipality.
 Utilization of agri-business plans and facilitation of linkages between farmers credit program
tailored to their realities.

10. Replicability/Adaptability
Has this intervention been successfully replicated or adapted in another setting? If so, where, when and
by whom?
This program in Bolivia incorporated the lessons learned from other agricultural programs
implemented by ADRA in Latin America and Africa over the last 20 years. The consolidation of this
clear marketing approach has also helped ADRA to design and implement market driven projects
adapted to other realities worldwide. Overall, this approach has been used by ADRA in the last five
years in several USAID-funded projects, including DRC, Honduras, Madagascar, Mozambique and
Nicaragua.