ABOUT THE MINI PROJECT
BACKGROUND
Despite dramatic gains in horticultural productivity over the past 30 years, the consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables (F&V) in South Asian countries such as India and Bangladesh remain significantly below the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) recommended 400 grams/day/person. With the vast majority of horticultural products consumed fresh, markets are the crucial meeting place between the upstream suppliers of fruits and vegetables – who require a profitable price for the sustainability of their livelihood – and the downstream traders and consumers of horticultural products. However, a number of barriers impede the flow of affordable F&V downstream to markets and consumers, including seasonal and erratic supplies, inefficient and costly transportation for farmers wanting to reach the market, and the lack of affordable cold chain facilities to store marketing surpluses. Critically, a number of these barriers are inflated in rural areas, where consumers tend to be more financially restricted and reliant upon smaller, more isolated markets.
HORTICULTURAL AGGREGATION AND THE 'LOOP' SCHEME
Aggregation is the process of pooling and transporting the F&V produce of multiple farmers to market. Working on the principles of collective action, aggregation splits the costs of a vehicle (i.e. a flatbed truck) between multiple farmers to reduce their market transport costs. Aggregation may also help save farmers time by removing the need to travel to the market, find a buyer and negotiate the price.
The ‘Loop’ aggregation scheme, developed by the NGO Digital Green in 2016, has transported 100,000 tonnes of F&V produce to around 150 markets across Bihar. Loop is also operational in Jessore district, Bangladesh, where over 17,000 tonnes of F&V has been supplies to 21 markets across southwest Bangladesh since April 2017. Therefore, MINI explores the potential for harnessing 'Loop-type' aggregation (see below) to increase the availability and affordability of fresh F&V in local, retail-oriented markets.
STUDY OBJECTIVES
The MINI project has three main objectives centred around the core theme of exploring the nutritional potential of horticultural aggregation schemes (i.e. the ability to improve F&V availability and affordability in markets serving nutritionally-vulnerable consumers):
What are the implications of the current Loop scheme for the availability and affordability of F&V in local markets across Bihar and Jessore?
How can the scheme be made more nutritionally-sensitive, safe and equitable?
What are the implications of the scenarios for future evolution?
Whilst nutrition security is at the forefront of these objectives, we also acknowledge that aggregation schemes are primarily producer-facing interventions. A key part of the MINI project is therefore understanding the types and magnitudes of trade-offs that may arise from adapting aggregation schemes to become more consumer-oriented; for example, how may farmer incomes be effected by increasing the volumes of Loop aggregations supplied to local, retail-oriented markets?
METHODOLOGICAL OVERVIEW
The methodological approach of MINI is geared towards developing system dynamics models to simulate future scenarios of Loop evolution and their associated impacts upon aggregation participation, farmer incomes, and the availability and affordability of F&V in local markets. An initial value chain assessment helped establish the underlying structures of actors, regulations and feedbacks that drive the flows of F&V downstream towards consumer markets. The assessment benefited greatly from access to the ‘Loop dashboard’, which is a near real-time database of all of Loop’s market transactions in Bihar and Jessore (e.g. data on market locations, crop quantities sold, prices received and so on). The headline findings from our value chain analyses can be explored over on the ‘Materials & Media' page.
In both India and Bangladesh, we conducted 360 farming household surveys to increase the volume of quantitative data available and enable econometric modelling of the determinants of Loop participation and livelihood outcomes. Simultaneously, we conducted a series of ‘spatial group model building’ (SGMB) sessions to bring the stakeholders into the modelling process and tap into their many years of lived experience in the horticultural value chains of Jessore and Bihar. The formal systems modelling is currently ongoing, although some of our initial scenarios investigating the roles of Loop expansion, transport subsidisation and cold storage utilisation can be viewed over on the ‘Research Outputs’ page.
JEEVIKA BACKYARD POULTRY
Since 2011, the Bihar Rural Livelihoods Project (“JEEViKA”) has ran a system of backyard poultry across Bihar – aiming to provide landless households with a source of income and an extra source of poultry protein for consumption. Although there is tentative evidence to suggest that households participating in JEEViKA have increased their monthly income by up to INR 500, it is currently unknown whether ‘Loop-type’ aggregation schemes have the potential to better link backyard poultry producers to the market environment. Moreover, being an intervention led by women at the community, village, and household levels, there is an open question as to the extent to which scaling-up JEEViKA could lead to gender-based trade-offs in participation and decision-making dimensions. With the support of Dr Rakesh Kumar (JEEViKA State Project Manager, Patna), MINI plans to conduct a rapid value chains analysis and campaign of SGMB to explore the feedbacks, marketing opportunities and potential trade-offs arising from the system.
MINI PROJECT FUNDERS
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