Seed Awards – Revised Submission Form

Please complete the form in full and send it to by December 31st 2004 if you require feedback. Final deadline is January 15th 2005.

1. Major partnership details

Partnership Title: / SRI Global Marketing Partnership (SRI GMP) to Support Resource-Limited Rice Farmers, Conserve Rice Biodiversity and Promote Human and Environmental Health
One-line description (30 words max): / Farmer-based organizations in Cambodia, Madagascar and Sri Lanka, working with an international institute, combine their knowledge, experience and resources to collectively develop domestic and international markets for SRI (System of Rice Intensification) rice to increase smallholder incomes, conserve rice biodiversity, promote human and environmental health, and empower rural households.
Location: / Cambodia, Madagascar, Sri Lanka (as pilot sites, which can be expanded to other developing countries)

2. Contact details

Please complete details of the primary point of contact representing the partners in applying to the Seed Awards.

Title (Mr, Ms, Dr. etc.): / Prof.
First name: / Norman
Last name: / Uphoff
Position: / Director, CIIFAD
Email address: /
Telephone: / 607-255-0831
Fax number: / 607-255-5131
Organisation Name: / Cornell International Institute for Food, Agriculture and Development (CIIFAD)
Type[1]: / Academic/international
One-line description: / CIIFAD works with partners in Africa, Asia and Latin America to initiate and support innovative programs that [contribute to] improve[d] prospects for global food security, sustainable rural development, and environmental conservation around the world.
Website (URL): / www.ciifad.cornell.edu
Address: / 31 Warren Hall, Cornell University
City: / Ithaca, NY
Postcode: / 14853
Country: / USA

2. Other partner organisations

Please complete details of all other partners involved (please copy and paste template to create further boxes for additional partners).

Organisation Name: / Center for Study and Development of Cambodian Agriculture (CEDAC, Centre d’ Etudes et de Developpement Agricole Cambodgien)
Country: / Cambodia
Type: / NGO/national
One-line description: / National NGO promoting agricultural development in a participatory mode with small farmers; has built use of System of Rice Intensification (SRI) from 28 farmers in 2000 to over 20,000 in 2004, with a link now to the Ministry of Agriculture and support from GTZ.
Website (URL): / http://www.wis.cgiar.org/rwc/shared/asp/generalinfoserver/intermediate.asp?InstitutionID=10666
Status of partner
(fully involved / initial discussions held / potential): / Partner fully involved; represented the partnership at the 3rd World Environmental Congress in Bangkok
Organisation Name: / Community Camp Programmes
(funded by Community Aid Abroad, the Australian Oxfam affiliate)
Country: / Sri Lanka
Type: / NGO grassroots organization/local-national, linked with international NGO
One-line description: / Association of 10 grassroots farmers groups working to implement collective consumer marketing programs, pilot and publicize alternative farming technologies that are environmentally-friendly and low-cost, and add value to products.
Website (URL): / http://www.oxfam.org.au/world/sthasia/sri_lanka/livelihoods.html
Community Camp Programmes
ADDRESS: New Hassen Building, Warakapola, SRI LANKA
President : Nalini Kodisinghe (Sarath Wijesuriya=local contact)
Gamini Batuwitage (additional liaison; director of World Bank-funded national anti-poverty program)
Status of partner
(fully involved / initial discussions held / potential): / Confirmation of interest by email. CIIFAD has worked with Batuwitage and Wijesuriya on rice development since 2000.
Organisation Name: / National Federation of Koloharenas
Country: / Madagascar
Type: / Grassroots organizations/local-national
One-line description: / Confederation of 30 farmer cooperatives consisting of regrouped smaller producer associations (10-20 members per Koloharena association) committed to increasing small-farm income using environmentally-sound farming methods and sustainable natural resource management techniques, federated into a national advocacy organization, initiated by CIIFAD under the USAID Landscape Development Interventions project
Website (URL): / Mr.Jules RANDRIANARIVELO
President de la Confederation Nationale SAHAVANONA Koloharena
BP 934
CFP Ambatobe
Antananarivo 101
MADAGASCAR
Tel: 261-20-033-12-465-57
email:
web page: www.koloharena.com
Status of partner
(fully involved / initial discussions held / potential): / Fully involved; the national confederation, cooperatives and associations will have continuing support under new USAID projects including a market development component (Business and Market Expansion: BAMEX), which will be the principal liaison on the SEED partnership. A key contact is Glenn Lines, a consultant to BAMEX who will be based in Ithaca, and who has extensive experience in extending SRI, developing market linkages for producer groups and institutional capacity building.

3. Summarize your partnership’s goal/objective

What is the basic idea behind your partnership project?
What exactly are you trying to achieve and how are you planning to achieve it?
(maximum 500 words) / BACKGROUND - Commercial rice cultivation in the developing world is becoming financially and environmentally unsustainable due to low market prices and the cost of chemically-dependent production practices. There is also an alarming loss of biological diversity in Asia's paddies. By the early 1990s, just 5 varieties accounted for 90% of the rice growing areas in Malaysia and Pakistan, and nearly half that of Thailand and Burma. These trends are occurring at the same time that the demand for exotic and healthy foods is rising in North America and Europe. Small producers who grow indigenous rice varieties, among the most vulnerable and most difficult-to-reach populations from the viewpoint of modern agriculture, have something valuable that they can sell to consumers, both locally and internationally. Developing markets for natural or organically cultivated, traditional rice varieties that command higher prices can give farmers a new strategy for competing in a global economy.
SRI (System of Rice Intensification) is a method for growing rice that increases yields of traditional varieties by 50-100% using 25-50% less water, less or no chemical fertilizer or other inputs, and 80-90% less seed. Average rice yields with SRI across 13 countries have been 7.3 t/ha, compared with an average of 4.3 t/ha for control/ comparisons. In several countries average SRI yields exceeded 10.5 t/ha. According to a GTZ assessment in Cambodia, net profitability per hectare increased by 75%. Elsewhere it has doubled or more. Lower capital requirements make it accessible to the poorest households. There are now as many as 100,000 farmers in over 20 countries using SRI techniques. [See SRI website for details http://ciifad.cornell.edu/sri/ ]
PARTNERSHIP GOALS
·  Create a marketing network that (1) facilitates exchange of facilitates exchange of technical knowledge, market information and experience in-country and trans-country; (2) develops a collective marketing strategy to develop international and domestic markets that increase farmers’ incomes and reward conservation of rice biodiversity and the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices such as SRI; and (3) helps bring togetherthe different and often isolated donor-funded SRIprograms in various countries.
The dissemination of SRI is largely a grassroots movement driven by local NGOs and farmer organizations, although government agencies and donors are now beginning to support it. Thus, activities have been taking place in a disconnected and uncoordinated fashion, country by country. In large countries like India, this is occurring state by state. Increasingly, farmers are producing surpluses and looking for markets for their organic, traditional rices. Most are subsistence farmers who sell exclusively to their neighbors. They and their NGO partners have little or no experience in penetrating more sophisticated domestic or international niche markets. Marketing factors affect farmers’ decisions. It is essential that marketing support occur in tandem with production if farmers and the environment are to benefit from this system.
The three national partners in Cambodia, Madagascar and Sri Lanka and CIIFAD anticipate enormous benefit to farmers from marketing efforts that have some central support and coordination. Much of the expertise and support that SRI groups need are the same or similar (information about Fair Trade , labelling, packaging, organic certification, quality control, branding, import and export tariffs, funding sources, experts in agribusiness training, new market opportunities, etc.) Some of this information already exists in various agencies. Making this information available will improve efficiency and reduce duplication of effort and funding, promote the adoption of SRI with its many ecological benefits, and ultimately expedite the objectives of helping farmers out of poverty and improving their health and that of the environment.
To that end, the four partners propose to combine their respective resources to create the SRI Global Marketing Partnership (SRI GMP) which can expand as interest and opportunity increase.

·  4. Describe your partnership project

·  Please answer all the questions below in brief (bullet points are encouraged). Do not use more than three pages in total to respond to all the questions:

·  Where did the idea for the partnership come from?
·  In what way is it entrepreneurial or innovative? / SRI was developed in Madagascar and is promoted there by the NGO Association Tefy Saina, which has been a CIIFAD partner since 1994, and which has assisted in training Koloharena members. The idea came from CIIFAD, based on observations and discussions with the three national partners about their needs. They are now reaching levels of production where an active, innovative marketing strategy can help capture the full benefit of their work and encourage other farmers to follow suit.
The partnership is innovative in terms of the diversity of partners (university, NGOs and farmer organizations]) and the many synergies they can create by joining forces to connect farmers and stakeholders across countries to benefit from each others' experience. For example, Madagascar has connections to Conservation International, USAID and Slow Food, Sri Lanka to the World Bank, Oxfam and Fair Trade groups in Europe, and CEDAC has connections to GTZ, Oxfam, JICA, and ADB. Tapping into these sources will yield information and expertise from which all can benefit. SRI GMP is entrepreneurial in that it will identify and create new domestic and international markets for indigenous rice varieties that are produced using environmentally sound practices, and develop sustainable market linkages for small-scale producers through business and management skills capacity building and commercial contracts. One idea is to use the Internet so that small farmers with relatively low volumes of rice can pool supplies and participate collectively in niche markets. SRI GMP is breaking ground for change in cultivation practices (SRI is an environmentally sound method) and marketing techniques (promoting small-farmer produced indigenous varieties) that respond to global environmental, economic, health and social concerns.
·  In what ways does your partnership idea address
i) environmental concerns (e.g. restore the natural environment; prevent environmental damage; promote sustainable use of the environment)?
·  ii) economic concerns (e.g. poverty alleviation; generating income opportunities)?
·  iii) social concerns (e.g. gender issues; minority issues; conflict resolution)? / The SRI GMP directly addresses 3 of the 8 UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and several others indirectly.
(i) The SRI GMP, by helping farmers penetrate markets and receive a premium price for their SRI rice, will contribute to environmental concerns by increasing the economic incentives for adoption of SRI. Two of the most important aspects about SRI are its reduced water and chemical requirements. Rice production is the largest single consumer of freshwater worldwide. By promoting non-flooded rice paddies, the SRI method can double or more normal yields with half the amount of water. This is especially important in parts of the world where water is becoming scarcer. Farming with less water is going to be one of the biggest challenges of the 21st century. Unflooded paddies do not produce methane, one of the major ‘greenhouse gases’ contributing to global warming. SRI also reduces or eliminates the application of agrochemicals, thereby improving soil and water quality and reducing risks to humans. This is critical in countries like Cambodia, where toxic pesticides (mostly applied to rice), banned in the rest of the world, pose very serious threats to farmers and the environment. http://www.ejfoundation.org/pdfs/death_in_small_doses.pdf SRI promotes biodiversity conservation by enabling farmers to achieve 6-10 t/ha and sometimes more with traditional varieties. By dramatically increasing lowland yields, SRI also reduces the need to cultivate rice (using slash-and-burn techniques) in ecologically vulnerable upland primary forest areas.
(ii) In Asia and Madagascar, rice is not just a crop: it symbolizes life itself and is the basis of rural and historical tradition. This deep emotional commitment to rice means that rice farmers are reluctant to find alternative crops, even as rice becomes less and less viable as an income source. The Food and Fertilizer Technology Center, which operates in the Asia Pacific region makes the following argument:
“In those countries which are being forced to open at least a percentage of their rice market to imports, producers may be best protected by policies which emphasize rice quality, including organic farming methods as well as flavor. This will promote the development of a domestic rice market of diverse and distinctive rice varieties which fetch high prices and are more distinguished by their quality than by their agronomic characters. It will be more difficult for overseas producer to compete successfully in a market of this kind.” http://www.fftc.agnet.org/library/article/ac1993a.html#6
SRI farmers have that high-quality product: diverse and distinct organic rice varieties. SRI GMP will help them take advantage of this new income opportunity by facilitating their participation in local and international markets. SRI profitability has been repeatedly shown to be 50-100% higher per acre, thereby enhancing smallholder incomes. With effective marketing strategies SRI farmers will be able to improve their economic status even further.
(iii) As SRI does not require purchased inputs, it is more accessible to poorer farmers. Moreover, SRI, as an adaptable set of practices rather then a specific technology, encourages farmers to innovate and become agents for rural change. The expansion of SRI has been largely farmer driven. In Cambodia the growing network of SRI farmers has given rise to a Cambodian Farmers Assembly with over 2000 members in 10 provinces. http://ciifad.cornell.edu/sri/sokhengpost.html
Some of the most enthusiastic and convincing SRI users are women. They could be dynamic proponents if given a role in the dissemination process, particularly communicating with other women. SRI has also been shown in places to improve women’s health through earlier transplanting in non-flooded fields and labor-saving innovations that reduce labor requirements.
·  What steps have already been taken towards building the partnership and, if applicable, implementing the project?
·  Please include in the description the role of local communities in your partnership (planning, implementation, monitoring). / Cambodia – A growing number of NGOs, headed by CEDAC, are working with SRI, and the Ministry of Agriculture and its agricultural extension service are getting involved. GTZ has just agreed to fund, through CEDAC, a national SRI secretariat at the Ministry. In 2004, at least 20,000 farmers were using SRI methods; the number could double in 2005. CEDAC has started putting into place institutional infrastructure to help farmers market SRI rice locally. It has identified the need for training and advice on how to operate a marketing component.