Author: Brent Simpson, MSU, March 2011

1. Extension and Value Chain Development:
What does it take to make
extension more market oriented?
Brent M. Simpson
Michigan State University
MEAS Deputy Project Director

2. Why? What is gained?
o Economic growth/Poverty reduction
• The focus is on profit enhancement – greater
productivity, increased efficiency, loss reduction, new
product development, enhanced business
environment, stronger sub-sector specific and cross-
cutting support services;
• Value-chain develop is a higher order target than SME
development (sub-sector vs. individual firm) – SME are
essential, but not sufficient in value-chain development
o Organizing framework
• Who are the target groups
• Where to focus efforts
• What skills/knowledge sets are needed
• How to carryout interventions

3. Basmati Rice-40 FIGs Dairy – 125 FIGs (25)
Example of how the NATP Project was Implemente
Major Urban Centres
Oilseeds - 10 FIGs
Vegetables - 46 FIGs (20)
Poultry/Fisheries - 35 FIGs
Mushrooms – 152 FIGs (120)
In one Project District in India
Pulses - 25 FIGs
HMACs – 140 FIGs
Potato/Onion - 35 FIGs
Vermi-compost – 52 FIGs (28)
Diara = Ganges Beekeeping – 13 FIGs
Floriculture 19 FIGs river-basin
Silt builds-up inPost-harvest/VA-26 FIGs (17)
the diara, which
is good for post-monsoon = 45 (39)
Micro-credit SHGs
horticultural crops FIGs = 763 (249)
TOTAL
Tal = wetlands good for post-
monsoon (rabi) pulse crops
Number and type of Farmer Interest Groups
(FIGs) in different blocks in Patna District, Bihar

4. What does it take?
o Vision/Understanding Global
Retailers
• Structure of the market Domestic
Retailers
system
Exporters
o Knowledge/Skills Wholesalers
• To deliver what the
market(s) wants
Processors/Traders
o Intervention Strategy
• Who, where, what, how Producers
Input Suppliers

5. What Product(s), which market(s)?
o Food Crop/Product – non-Food
Crop/Product
• Malibiocarburant (Mali)
o Staple commodity – Niche product(s)?
• INSORMIL/ROCARS (Senegal)
o Domestic – Export?
• Specialty Coffee (Rwanda)
 Private sector initiative
 Government development objectives
 Donor investment priorities
 Opportunity analysis (bottom-up; top-down)

6. Vision – reality is complicated
Value Chain Development

7. Knowledge – what market the wants
Producing for the market
≠
Just selling what you produce
≠≠
Value Chain Development
Selling what you have left over, or don’t want
To be market-driven extension must evolve
from an undifferentiated supply-push mindset
to an informed, demand-targeted orientation

8. Knowledge – what market the wants
Market preferences (domestic markets)
e.g., parboiled rice (Nigeria), broken rice (Senegal), imported
‘butter rice’ (Liberia), indigenous African rice (sub-regional)
Buyer determined specifications (contracts)
Value Chain Development
e.g., appearance, cleanliness, varietal purity, traceability
International standards (international markets)
e.g., industry specific (cotton, coffee), production type
(organic, fair trade), product based (acidity of olive
oil), market destination (APHIS, EU)

9. Intervention Strategy -- Who
Value Chain Development
Who are the target
groups?
Where are they located?
What skills to they need?

10. Intervention Strategy -- Who
Models of Intervention
• Producer groups, ‘clusters,’ professional
associations
• Contract
farming, distributorships, franchises
• Open-access resource provisioning of
information/technologies
Principle of Best Practice: Find a model that
works (become effective); refine it (become
efficient); replicate (scale-up)(a la Korten).

11. Intervention Strategy -- What
Skills
Technical/production, managerial, organiz
ational/leadership, negotiation
Knowledge
Market demands/requirements, legal/
regulatory requirements, market system
functioning
Access
credit, inputs, market information, other
actors in the value-chain

12. Intervention Strategy -- What
Things the ‘market won’t provide,’ or have
not provided:
Non-proprietary, or public goods
e.g., recommendations on natural
resource management, adaptation to
climate change, objective comparative
product information, product safety
information
Organizational development
assistance, business development
support, basic educational skills

13. Intervention Strategy -- How
Questions of sustainability:
Financial – are those offering EAS, as well as
those being targeted, capable of continuing
under their own financial resources?
Organizational – do those organized through
EAS assistance have the skills and
capabilities needed to successfully manage
their affairs (BDS) independently?

14. Intervention Strategy -- How
Maintenance & expansion – can those EAS
efforts set in motion continue to function as
long as they are needed?
Can they replicate and expand their scope of
coverage – geographically, number of
beneficiaries reached, breadth of technical
issues addressed – as opportunities arise?
Have appropriate linkages been built with
training centers and universities to maintain a
supply of human resources?

15. Questions?

16. Terms of Use
© Brent Simpson, Michigan State University, MEAS project.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Users are free:
• to Share — to copy, distribute and transmit the work
• to Remix — to adapt the work
Under the following conditions:
• Attribution — Users must attribute the work to the Brent Simpson, Michigan
State University, MEAS project (but not in any way that suggests that the author or
institution endorses the user or the user’s use of the work).

17. Disclaimer
This presentation was made possible by the generous
support of the American people through the United States
Agency for International Development, USAID. The
contents are the responsibility of the author(s) and do not
necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States
Government.

18. Consortium Partners
SAFE