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Writes Charles Dhewa
Agroecology and related sustainable ways of producing food started receiving attention in the past few years compared to industrial agriculture practices some of which are more than 100 years old. This means big industries that advance agroecology at a big scale are yet to be developed. However, the increasing demand for food produced sustainably among urban African consumers is pointing to huge potential for nurturing agroecology entrepreneurship around territorial markets and related supply chain actors through which the majority of consumers are accessing food that they consider healthy, safe, and culturally appropriate.
Importance of carefully profiling agroecology entrepreneurs
Having been exposed to industrial agricultural practices for decades, many African farmers and entrepreneurs aspiring to carve a solid identity as agroecology advocates will require a lot of capacity building, re-education, and support to unlearn toxic industrial practices. The starting point is the meticulous profiling of these actors. Such profiling may not be done adequately by NGOs with a beneficiary approach that excludes actors who may not meet the beneficiary definition although they may have been practicing indigenous agroecology for millennia. The private sector may not be able to do that profiling either because it mainly focuses on cash crops like tobacco that are undermining agroecology.
Government departments like ministries of agriculture may also struggle to properly profile agroecology entrepreneurs because government information-gathering tools tend to focus heavily on production without covering territorial markets that handle much of the food from diverse farmers. On the other hand, besides being in charge of territorial markets, local authorities do not often know who is who in those markets. Territorial market committees have some information about their members but such information is limited to registers for social issues like bereavement. Ivory towers like universities do not have a sustained appetite for studying these markets and integrating them into higher learning curricula.
Given this situation, there is no cohesive understanding of territorial markets by many formal institutions that are working in silos yet these markets contribute immensely to socio-economic development. To close most of these knowledge gaps, eMKambo (www.emkambo.co.zw) is using a profiling methodology that goes deeper into understanding territorial markets including their growth. Critical questions include: Why are territorial mass markets growing when several formal industries are collapsing? African governments are building more schools and universities but they seem not to see the need to assess the growth patterns of mass markets that deserve to be invested in given their direct contribution to GDP. Conversely, parastatals continue receiving support from the fiscus but still underperform and collapse while territorial markets continue thriving without support from the fiscus. What is in these markets that makes them so resilient without support?
Territorial mass markets exemplify Indigenous embedded finance models
What is emerging from the eMKambo profiling methodology is that territorial mass markets are a typical African model built around Ubuntu, sharing relationships including food. Modern financial systems have failed to adapt to mass market practices that are adept at embedding barter movement of commodities from production zones to markets based on trust and relationships built over years of coping with uncertainties. For instance, mass markets do not use much documentation but anchor their practices on trust and relationships. Where banks talk about risk and collateral, mass markets say you only need trust and relationships to do business. This is how these markets have become part of the social fabric and daily life. Mass market entrepreneurs do not feel like they are going to work when going to the mass market. Even during weekends, they are fraternizing without sticking to working hours like 8 am to 5 pm which typifies formal business systems.
Framework and indicators for nurturing growth
Borrowing lessons from territorial markets, key questions in nurturing the growth of African agroecology entrepreneurs include: What are the indicators of growth in African entrepreneurship? A meaningful process can start by assessing socio-economic aspects beginning with a farmer or trader meeting household needs, followed by providing family support and growth through mass markets, and then sending children to college/universities with proceeds from the territorial markets. This is an entrepreneurship journey within the family system which cannot be expressed through profit and loss. In the African sense, growth is not just in several branches or company registration or obtaining operating space. A farmer with a lot of Indigenous chickens in a rural community is an entrepreneur as long as s/he can explain growth pathways.
Food sovereignty and entrepreneurship start at the household level
When assessing viability, it is key to look at the resilience component starting at the household level because food sovereignty starts at the household level. It is after satisfying household food requirements that farmers produce a surplus to meet other household needs that are different from the conventional notion of investing. Along the journey, entrepreneurship moves from household to mass markets which become key sources of raw materials for sustaining growth. Other critical elements include the following:
Generational business pass-on: Growth also comes through generational business pass-on which is not found in formal businesses. This is a unique form of social apprenticeship that is prevalent in mass markets where, as the old get older, they hand over skills to their offspring. Widows do the same through embedded nurturing practiced in the markets, enabling actors to become experts in their line of business.
Building expertise in driving specific value chains: Over time, mass markets have become experts in cultivating and driving specific value chains. No trader is a Jack of all trades as there are now specialists in particular value chains through understanding business cycles. Many traders have learned that jumping off from a commodity during tough times to follow the bandwagon is counter-productive because such opportunistic behaviour undermines growth. Economic downturns are handled expertly which is why you find some commodities that are not considered profitable at one time are still traded in mass markets.
Growth in value addition: The growth of value addition is being informed by mass markets as seen by how some gluts are directed to processing. The market also ensures consistent supply pathways by encouraging farmers to dry food or add value at the household level. For some reason, policymakers see the gluts happening but do not provide support. For instance, where is mechanization to support gluts? Where are universities to start nurturing entrepreneurship in mass markets? Mass markets are trying to inform which commodities can be value added including agroecology entrepreneurs. In what form do consumers prefer commodities? For instance, why is finger millet sold in the retail market? This is how value addition is becoming another growth pathway for Afrocentric entrepreneurs.
Mass markets as seedbeds for business models. Where farmers are seen producing small quantities individually, the mass market advises them to aggregate. It is absurd for NGOs to expect a group of few women doing peanut butter processing to drive growth in community entrepreneurship without connecting with the mass market. There is a need for massive investment in value-addition mechanization at the community level so that many people benefit from economies of scale. Why not start an agroecology irrigation scheme or agroecology business centre? It is key to move away from piloting to real businesses in particular production zones. In the face of overwhelming evidence that territorial markets are the backbone of the growth of agroecology entrepreneurship, the main question to African policymakers is: Why are these markets not being recognized, supported, and protected by government institutions and other actors? Without support from the government and other formal institutions, agroecology commodities will continue to suffer the same fate as conventional commodities that are being produced haphazardly.
