For futher information contact: Rural Agroenterprise Development Project

[The Challenge] [Our Mandate] [How We Operate]

The Challenge

The tropics possess great wealth in raw materials that have potential demand in local and international markets. Changing market trends and different consumption habits are creating niches for exotic fruits, nuts, medicinal plants, and organic raw materials such as essential oils, natural colorings, spices, and tannins. New opportunities have also arisen for traditional basic products (including new products derived from cassava, sugarcane, and livestock) and for local seed production.

However, small-scale farmers and entrepreneurs face numerous barriers that prevent them from taking full advantage of these marketing opportunities. Usually, economic models and policies do not favor them; they have little business experience, and lack information on technologies, markets, and prices; and receive little support in terms of training, advisory services, and credit.

In response to these problems, the Rural Agroenterprise Development Project was established, first as the Cassava Utilization Section in the 1980s, then as the Project proper in 1996. The Project seeks to promote rural business development and encourage both small rural producers’ organizations and support entities toward an improved business and market orientation.

Our Mandate

Vision

That, with equity, the rural population’s quality of life is improved and the sustainable use of natural resources is promoted by strengthening local capacity through institutions that share a common vision of rural business development.   This effort is also oriented toward those agroenterprises, capable of generating well-being, that involve small rural producers in decision making, prioritize the aggregation of value to their products and the use of clean production systems, and can liaise among themselves and with the market through competitive products.

Mission

To promote the linking of small farmers with growing markets and motivate the adoption of conservation practices through the development of methodologies, tools, information, and models of institutional organization for establishing and strengthening rural agroenterprises and their complementary support services.

Currently, the Project works with five modules that integrate the essential elements for developing rural agroenterprises: Marketing, Postharvest Technology, Business Organization, Integrated Agroenterprise Projects (IAPs) and Local Support Systems (LSS), and Training and Strategic Alliances.

Principles

Business approach

Our focus is on:

• Providing up-to-date information on economics, financing, and marketing.
• Developing appropriate business practices (planning, monitoring, and risk calculation) where production processes are handled by economic organizations.

Market orientation

We aim to demonstrate to local producers how to respond to demand from local, national, regional, and international markets.

Participation

We encourage local actors to participate actively in the Project’s decision making, thereby generating their own rights and duties:

• Rights: local actors may participate in decision making, analyses, contracting, planning, administration, resource management, evaluation, and benefits resulting from their activities.

• Duties: local actors have commitments and responsibilities toward the Project and toward the entity or group that represents them.

Local capacity

We identify and strengthen local capacity for developing agroenterprises, instead of replacing them with external solutions.

Consensus building

We facilitate consensus building among local actors and production chains to discover complementarities or synergies.

Equity

We attempt to orient benefits to the greatest number of people or groups possible so not to limit the products we generate to privileged groups.

Sustainability

We intend that the activities generated or supported are sustainable according to the following terms:

• Social: strengthening organizations and creating long-term opportunities for consensus building.
• Economic: encouraging the generation of profitable agroenterprises.
• Environmental: supporting the appropriate use of natural resources, without this threatening the community’s future.

How We Operate

Strategic processes

We carry out three strategic processes to fulfill our mission:

• We identify demand for products (e.g., methodologies, tools, and information) by studying problems, gaps, and opportunities for small rural producers.
• We develop these products in collaboration with our partners.
• We promote the use of these products in demand to develop local capacities.

Our immediate clients are organizations of small rural producers (SRPs), development agencies of the government and private sector, and entities for the formation of human capital.   

Methodological framework

We have developed a methodological framework called “Territorial Orientation to Rural Business Development”, which consists of two phases:

• The planning phase, which comprises four modules:
  • Formation of the working team and development of a common vision.
  • Identification of market opportunities.
  • Design of integrated production projects (i.e., oriented toward the production chain).
  • Proposal for strengthening the local support system.

• The execution phase, which consists of implementing the integrated production projects and strengthening the local support system.

We implement this methodology, either totally or partially, in reference sites and with the collaboration of development agencies of the state and private sector. In our work, we combine development, research, and learning about rural business development.

Decentralization

The Project is decentralized, having regional coordinators in Africa, Asia, Central America, and the Andean Region of northern South America.