THEME INFO PACKS: RURAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP

An entrepreneur is someone who builds an enterprise or venture, and who produces for or serves the market. Are small scale farmers also entrepreneurs? If an entrepreneur is a determined and creative person, or someone who looks for opportunities to improve and expand his or her business, or someone who takes calculated risks, then small scale farmers are certainly entrepreneurs. Previous issues of LEISA Magazine have not followed this view, but we have considered many of the aspects related to entrepreneurship.

Volume 20.3, for example, looked at the post-harvest moment, considering storage, value addition and at the many different ways in which commercialisation takes place. The different articles showed the need to look beyond technological aspects, and consider the farms' management, the farmer organisations, the level of access to information. Equally important is the presence of markets and credit facilities. Among these articles, we had:

Improving cassava processing for the market, by Quirien van Oirschot, Theresia Ngendello and Andrew Westby.
This article describes the experiences of a collaborative project to support cassava commercialization by introducing a hand-operated cassava chipper that produces a "new" product: cassava chips. Read the complete article here.

Volume 21.2, titled "More than money", included articles which showed that the market price of a farm's product is only part of the benefits which farming, and small scale agriculture in general, has. Agriculture can form the basis of strong rural communities, provide healthy food and maintain ecosystem services. They show how, in many different ways, people have been able to create a richer and more sustainable livelihood through the use of their natural resources and the available opportunities. One of these articles is:

Bringing farmers together by Joshua Zake, Charles Walaga and Andre de Jager.
This article describes how, thanks to their participation in a Farmer Field School, farmers in Uganda were able to strengthen their own organisation, develop better relations with the community, and even find alternatives sources of funding, avoiding expensive loans. Through groupcontributions, they have been able to acquire seed and farm inputs. Read the complete article here.

Volume 24.1 looked again at trade and markets, though focusing on Fair Trade and on its many advantages. The label gives guarantee to consumers that small scale farmers get a fair price for their products: the worldwide movement it now represents a trading partnership that promotes standards that seek greater equity and transparency in international trade. All over the world, farmers are benefitting from it but, as this issue showed, there are some issues that need to be looked at in detail: what is the cost of certification? Can all farmers benefit, or only a few? What about "food miles"? The articles in this volume looked at some of the aspects that help farmers develop their own entrepreneurial capacities. Among these, we had:

Improved shea butter trading through certification by Cindy D'Auteuil.
The Union of Women Producers of Shea Products of Sissili and Ziro, in Burkina Faso, has recently received the organic certification for its products, in addition to the Fairtrade certificate they obtained in 2006. This dual certification gives them a clear advantage to penetrate the international market. Read the complete article here.

More information? Please write to the editors, at ileia@ileia.nl