| Grant Profile: |
| Project Title: |
Institutional Partnership Model for Government, Private Sector and Village Communities for Leveraging Social Capital for Economic Empowerment of Village Companies |
| PCF/LICUS/SPF: |
PCF |
Status: |
Closed |
| File Number: |
311
| Region: |
SA |
| Sector: |
Health and other social services |
Country: |
Sri Lanka |
| FY approved: |
2006 |
Grant Theme : |
Financial and private sector development |
| Keyword(s): |
Community-driven development |
Approved Amount: |
$244,250.00 |
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Grant Recipient:
Gemi Diriya Foundation |
Grant Purpose:
The main objective of the proposal is to test an approach of institutional partnership among community organizations and the private sector in conflict and non-conflict areas of Sri Lanka. The institutional partnership will involve (i) transfer of knowledge for technical assistance to community organizations on business opportunities, (ii) exposure to community-led viable enterprises and, (iii) provision of necessary resource and market linkages required to help poor communities, in conflict and non-conflict affected areas.
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Grant Activities:
Component 1: Identification, Capacity Building and Knowledge Transfer
This component would include:
(1) Developing viable business and technical assistance and capacity building plans;
(2) Developing a detailed calendar plan for adequate hand-holding and knowledge transfer;
(3) Assessing the technical support requirement and addressing these issues for product upgradation and design of new products and new areas of applicatio;
(4) Assessing and streamlining the supply chain to achieve economies of scale and provide focused interventions for moving up the product value chain'
(5) Undertaking market study and analysis including identification of existing markets, developing new ones - both domestic and international.
Importantly, an integral part of the component would be to conduct extensive research regionally and globally to locate appropriate private sector partners, initiate contact and negotiate for building partnerships with communities.
Component 2: Vertical Scale up
This component will support implementation of the business plans for identified economic activities for vertical scaling up. This would include purchase and operationalization of the productive investments, market testing, and market outreach for the products developed. Importantly, a key part of this component would be to set-up a para professional center, which would be able to provide technical assistance to the horizontally scaled up project involving 4000-5000 villages in the poorest districts of Sri Lanka. Specifically this would involve business skills development, marketing techniques, and basic maintenance skills for the technology.
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Results:
The purpose of the project was to strengthen institutional partnership among village community organizations and the private sector in Sri Lanka through increasing knowledge on business opportunities and markets, and developing and implementing business plans for identified economic activities. Several major achievements in this direction include:
The project identified several business enterprises as potential business opportunities in Sri Lanka:
(1) Hybrid maze with forward sale agreements
(2) Seed paddy production and certification
(3) Milk production and marketing routes with private sector linkage
(4) Cocoyam, papaya and jack fruit producers linked for export
(5) Dehydration units for lime export
The project facilitated the transfer of knowledge and technical transfer on the aforementioned business opportunities to the local village communities while interfacing simultaneously with the public and private sector stakeholders to establish direct formal business linkages with the village organizations in non-conflict affected areas.
Interaction between community organizations and the private sector improved over joint projects.
In 2006, hybrid seed (2.2 MT) was provided to 22 Village Organizations (VOs) benefiting 270 farmers.
In 2007, hybrid maize business was expanded formally in non-conflict affected areas. 28 (VOs) signed formal forward sales agreements with the private sector for doing hybrid maize business involving 2,110 farmers. 4.6 MT of hybrid seed was provided to cover 375 ha.
In 2008, hybrid maize business was further expanded in the non-conflict affected areas. 38 VOs signed formal forward sales agreements with the private sector involving 998 farmers. 15 MT of seeds were sold by the private sector to these 998 farmers, to cover 1200 ha under hybrid maize.
The focus on maize production and sales helped highland poor farmers have increased and stable income. The process helped put uncultivated lands in use, thus contributing to better utilization of local land and human resources.
Twenty out of 30 farmers that went through paddy production trainings engaged in seed paddy cultivation, covering 8 ha in 2 VOs. As a result, these farmers produced 45 MT of improved seed paddy in one season. This presented farmers with the opportunity to increase paddy production almost twice per season, further increasing their income.
Trainings and building of cattle sheds contributed to improved milk quality and production and improved marketing networks in 16 VOs. This process, in turn, added 800 litres of milk to the milk market. This allowed milk producing families to retain 1 to 2 litres of milk for home consumption which also improved the nutritional intake of the children within these families. In addition, as a result of the project, milk producers established better linkages with the main milk company and improved milk collection routes. Milk collection centers were also identified in each of the 16 village organizations.
Seven VOs were motivated to participate in producing cocoyam and jack fruit for export. A hundred and twenty farmers got involved in the process, cultivating cocoyam and jack fruit over 20 acres. As a result, 100 MT cocoyam and 7.5 MT jack fruit were exported at a better price, which increased farmers income with 100 percent.
Ten farmers benefitted from export of 4.6 MT sun dried lime. Fourteen units receiving loans for dehydrating lime have the capacity to handle about 165 MT of fresh lime annually, to produce approximately 20 MT of dehydrated lime. This proved to be a viable group economic activity in the village communities.
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Lessons Learned:
Lessons learned from implementing the project include:
In a partnership mode, producing for market requires holding of the produce either for better prices (maize for example) or for getting it certified (seed paddy for example). The participating farmers are facing credit problems to tide over this period till the product is sold.
Federated VOs have members with too many diverse activities and interests. As a result, the chances of succeeding with any particular business linkage developed are more challenging. For example, business linkage for papaya, snakegourd and green chillies has worked for one season in one of the VOs, and it stopped working because farmers were not getting quality seeds, and the product was not getting remunerative price. Therefore, ensuring homogeneity by forming producer groups for each specialized commodity will ensure both profitability and sustainability.
The business partnership should be extended beyond the training, seed and marketing support. The partnering farmers should come together in accessing both input and commodity markets as well as in accessing improved production technologies. Facilitators should play a greater role while mobilizing them. The facilitators need to be trained on technical aspects of the project interventions.
Market potentials need to be studied and analyzed to provide necessary inputs to the federations. For instance, forecasting the market demand for dehydrated lime or for yellow bell pepper requires thorough understanding of both domestic and export markets.
There needs to be a convergence in the allocation of resources for infrastructure and livelihood investments both within the VO as well as among the cluster of neighboring VOs, in order to optimize the benefits for both the individual beneficiaries as well as for the village communities.
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