Targeting Smallholders Within the PAA Africa Programme in Niger
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WORKING PAPER working paper number 159 july, 2017 ISSN 1812-108x Fostering food purchase programmes in widespread poverty contexts: targeting smallholders within the PAA Africa Programme in Niger Rosana Pereira de Miranda, Amadou Diop and Israel Klug, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Empowered lives. Resilient nations. International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth (IPC-IG) Working Paper No. 159 Fostering food purchase programmes in widespread poverty contexts: targeting smallholders within the PAA Africa Programme in Niger Rosana Pereira de Miranda, Amadou Diop and Israel Klug Published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the United Nations Development Programme. © FAO and UNDP, 2017 All rights reserved. The International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth is jointly supported by the United Nations Development Programme and the Government of Brazil. 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IPC-IG publications are available online at www.ipcig.org/publications free of charge. ISBN: 978-92-5-109802-8 (FAO) Print ISSN: 1812-108X IPC-IG Working Papers are available online at www.ipcig.org and subscriptions can be requested by email to [email protected]. FOSTERING FOOD PURCHASE PROGRAMMES IN WIDESPREAD POVERTY CONTEXTS: TARGETING SMALLHOLDERS WITHIN THE PAA AFRICA PROGRAMME IN NIGER1 Rosana Pereira de Miranda,2 Amadou Diop2 and Israel Klug2 1 INTRODUCTION With a surface area of 1,267,000 square kilometres, Niger is a vast Sahelian country located in the south of the Sahara Desert, which covers over two thirds of its land. In 2015, it had an estimated population of 17 million inhabitants and a particularly high growth rate of 3.3 per cent. It is one of the poorest countries in the world, ranked 187th in the 2014 United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Human Development Index (FAO 2015). Its main economic activity is agriculture, including growing crops and raising livestock, with over 80 per cent of the population working in this sector. In Niger, agriculture is organised in the form of subsistence family farming and depends very much on climate variations, which result in food and fodder production deficits and social crises. Therefore, Nigeriens suffer from chronic food and nutrition insecurity. Since 2005 they have experienced three major food crises that have eroded smallholders’ living standards. Chronic malnutrition also affects 53 per cent of children aged 6–59 months (INS 2014); the acute malnutrition prevalence of 14.8 per cent rarely falls below the 10 per cent alert threshold defined by the World Health Organization (WHO). Furthermore, vulnerable households’ access to food is further undermined by inter- annual and inter-seasonal price volatility and by high food prices. To address the situation of food and nutrition insecurity, the Government of Niger launched the 3N Initiative (Les Nigériens Nourrissent les Nigériens, ‘Nigeriens fed by Nigeriens’) in April 2012, with the overall objective to “contribute to protecting the Nigerien populations from hunger and to ensure the conditions for a full participation to national production and improved earnings”. 1. The authors would like to thank their colleagues from the Nigerien government and from FAO and WFP teams in Niger for sharing information, contributing to and revising this text, and providing suggestions and interviews— namely, Marcos Le Moal (WFP Niger), Nafiou Issiaka (WFP Niger), Malick Haido (FAO Niger), Amadou Diallo Allahoury (3N Initiative)—as well as the representatives of the Federation of Unions of Farmer-based Organisations in Niger (FUOPAN/SA’A), of Fuma Gaskiya, of Nazari and of the food supply agency (Office des Produits Vivriers du Niger). 2. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). 4 Working Paper This framework has five strategic priorities: i) increasing and diversifying agro-sylvo-pastoral and fish production; ii) steady market supply; iii) strengthening the population’s resilience to climate change, crises and disasters; iv) improving the population’s nutritional status; and v) facilitating and coordinating the 3N Initiative. Beyond the 3N Initiative, technical and financial partners such as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) are working with the government to strengthen food security in Niger by supporting an increase in agricultural production and providing supplies to school canteens as part of the school feeding programme, among other interventions. In this context, the implementation of the Purchase from Africans for Africa (PAA Africa) initiative in Niger receives technical and financial support from the Brazilian government, the High Commissioner of the 3N Initiative, FAO and the WFP. Since 2012 the PAA Africa programme in Niger has pursued three strategic objectives in dialogue with the overall mission of the programme: i) intensifying smallholders’ local production, particularly among women; ii) promoting local purchase initiatives through farmers’ organisations to provide food supplies to school canteens; and iii) capitalising on the initiative to strengthen the school feeding programme in Niger in relation to the marketing of the production of farmer-based organisations. The PAA Africa programme in Niger has been operated by FAO and the WFP, in collaboration with the decentralised services of the Ministry of Agriculture, the National Institute for Agronomic Research (Institut National de Recherche Agronomique) and the four farmer-based federations involved. Its implementation started in 2012 and went through a pilot phase (2012–2013) and a consolidation phase (since 2014). This study focuses on the pilot phase. The first phase of the programme ended in December 2013 and covered three communes of the Maradi region—Korin Habjia, Chadakori and Kornaka—in partnership with three producer-based federations and one union. As part of the activity dedicated to purchasing from producers, around 611 smallholders—including 273 women—were targeted to receive agricultural production support comprising inputs, equipment and technical training. Most (572) of the smallholders benefited from the guaranteed sale of their production through the joint support of FAO and the WFP. FAO and its partners were responsible for supporting access to inputs and for providing millet and cowpea crop management training, as both crops were selected to be supported by the programme. The WFP implemented local purchases from producer-based organisations, supported grain storage and contributed to building marketing capacities among the organisations. During the pilot phase, 238 tons of millet and cowpeas were purchased to be used in 60 school canteens in the Maradi region as part of the school feeding programme.3 The targeting process focused on vulnerable small-scale family farmers exposed to food insecurity; it resulted in a set of interdependent results, opportunities and constraints. According to a survey conducted in 2014 to collect data on smallholders’ living standards and farmer organisations, the project beneficiaries are extremely poor, and 70 per cent of their incomes are directly used to buy food. Furthermore, women accounted for more than 50 per cent of the smallholders participating in the project. Institutional procurement programmes4 are spreading throughout Africa, as they offer opportunities for economic inclusion in rural areas by enhancing market access. They can also contribute to increasing income levels, strengthening households’ investments and improving food and nutrition security, in line with the human right to adequate food (De Schutter 2014). Nevertheless, the lack of evidence on the development of