Services in the Agricultural Sector
In the wake of liberalisation, privatisation,
structural adjustment programmes and the transition from
centrally-planned to market economies in many countries, service
provision by state bureaucracies and centralised administrations is
forced to adapt to the changing circumstances. In the field of
agricultural research and extension, services are increasingly being
restructured, either to allow for service provision by the private
sector and non-profit agencies, or to improve the performance of public
service organisations. For the private sector, this represents a chance
for new business opportunities in the field of service provision.
For the public sector, this represents new challenges
with regard to the transformation of its organisation, role and
functions, as well as its relationship with civil society and market
actors. Public sector extension organisations will have to improve their
performance through public
sector reform programmes following New Public Management principles
of efficiency and effectiveness. Traditional approaches of service
provision (such as Training & Visit) which have proved to be too
expensive and too centralised have to be phased out or restructured in
line with modern principles of service provision. New approaches
suggest that other actors in the area of extension be considered, a
clear service and client-orientation be developed and farmers be
involved in innovation.
Rural Organisations as Service Providers
In the last decade, governments have increasingly
withdrawn from public sector agricultural services. Only part of the
missing services is being replaced by the private sector, limited to
those locations that promise financial returns to private enterprise.
Wherever farmers are unable to pay for services, the gap between demand
and supply of services widens.
Rural development policy therefore calls for a greater
role of the "third sector" in development. NGOs and the
organised farming sector (farmer organisations, professional producer
associations, co-operatives, NGOs and other private-collective
associations of rural people) are expected to take over local service
functions although they may not always be prepared for this task.
Producer associations, for instance, are usually
established to provide services such as:
-
efficient supply of production means and efficient
marketing systems for the association members
-
improving market access and market influence for
the individual enterprise
-
joint production and processing by making use of
market niches.
Experiences have shown, however, that producer
associations become sustainable only by following economic principles,
i.e. by attaining regular income, by using resources economically and by
charging fees for service delivery.
When establishing a producer association, choice of
location plays a role for social as well as economic reasons. First,
members should be reachable within a day, as producer associations
depend on mutual confidence based on practical experience and evidence.
Locations with existing organisational structures certainly have a
higher potential. In addition, also production or market sites play a
role for the choice of location.
A preparatory phase is highly recommended before
setting up an association. It should be devoted to explain the concept
to producers, build up confidence, provide information and training by
using methodologies such as group
consultation, and promote the exchange of experiences among
producers.
Other success criteria in the process are:
-
starting with a small number of motivated
producers who are ready to contribute
-
making use of selection criteria such as entrance
fees and enterprise vitality
-
taking care when selecting the management of the
association in order to obtain the right mixture of personal
competence, trustworthiness, and endurance.
Service system analysis
This is a tool that helps to put up service systems in
such a way that they correspond precisely to existing demands. Its first
step consists in choosing a service perspective. This refers to the fact
that services are
needed and organised around different issues, such as:
-
Services needed and organised around commodities.
This includes all services related to the production and
post-production of a specific commodity (e.g. cotton, tomatoes,
cocoa, etc.). A subset of this commodity service system would
concentrate on post-harvest operations, i.e. all services related to
operations, from harvesting of products to consumption (often
referred to as post-harvest systems).
-
Services needed and organised around the
application and management of agricultural inputs such as water
(e.g. irrigation systems), land or machinery.
-
Services organised in service sectors providing
elaborate service products, such as financial service systems,
education systems or innovation systems (i.e. services related to
the development of a particular innovation, including research,
information, input supply etc.).
-
Services in professional fields that need to build
on other supporting services or legal arrangements to be functional,
e.g. a veterinary service system or a plant protection service
system where practitioners need to work with laboratories,
scientists and supervising agencies.
Once a particular service perspective has been chosen,
the next step consists in describing and analyzing the system in
question. You will find the details on this approach here.
This website also provides a toolkit
to help you in the orientation, analysis and planning of various aspects
of services for rural development. Instruments and methodologies are
offered for aspects such as the clarification of roles in service
provision, service networks, user charges, benchmarking in service
provision and governance mechanisms.
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