Regional Planning Activities LIVES

Regional planning activities LIVES

1 Introduction

During the planning phase of LIVES (April – July) we need to conduct/complete various activities in each Region to accomplish the following objectives.

1. Identification of potential beneficiaries, farmers, service providers and other value chain actors.
2. Identification ofregional institutes who will jointly implement development, capacity development and research activities the LIVES project in the Region.
3. Baseline data collection for measuring project progress and impact (To be completed by September.

To accomplish each of these tasks some fieldwork/data collection needs to be conducted in the coming months, followed by regional analysis and summary, followed by national summary and inception workshop (first week of July).

Below is a description of the data collection exercise required for i), ii) and part of iii). Since only part of the data for 3 will be obtained from this exercise, additional guidelines will be provided later on for baseline data collection.

This will be followed by a brief section on analysis and summary of the data collected.

2 Data, information collection

To following procedure/data formats are proposed:

1. Selection of commodities value chains in each Region
2. Description and statistics agricultural system and commodity producers in selected Districts
3. Assessment service providers and other value chain actors at District, Zonal and Federal/Regional level.

The data/information collection will be conducted by a 4 person team of LIVES staff/consultants and a representative from the BoA and RARI.

2.1Selection of commodity value chains in each of the Regions

To determine commodity value chains during the LIVES project proposaldevelopment phase in 2010,consultative meetings were held in each of the Regions with the BoA and RARIs and representatives of ILRI and IWMI. In each Region the same approach was used i.e. given the menu of commodities, for which commodities would the Region like to receive support from LIVES. The menu of commodity options included: crop commodities – irrigated fruits and vegetables; livestock commodities - dairy, poultry, small and large ruminants (meat) and apiculture.Next,zones in which such commodities could be produced were identified. The results are shown in the table below.

TABLE1: Priority commodity value chains and their zonal locations selected by the four Regional States

Region/Zone / Beef /live
animals / Chicken
meat/eggs / Honey
& bee wax / Milk / SR meat/
live animals / Fruits / Veg-
etables / Total
Amhara / (10)
- Gondar N/S* / - / - / - / √ / - / (√) / √ / 2
- South Wollo / - / - / - / √ / √ / √ / √ / 4
- West Gojam / - / - / - / √ / √ / √ / √ / 4
Oromiya / (12)
- E Shoa / √ / - / - / - / √ / √ / √ / 4
- W Shoa / - / - / √ / √ / - / √ / √ / 4
- Jimma / - / - / √ / √ / √ / √ / - / 4
SNNPR / (5)
- GamoGofa / - / √ / √ / - / - / - / √ / 3
- Sidama** / - / √ / - / √ / - / - / - / 2
Tigray / (8)
- Central / - / - / - / √ / √ / √ / √ / 4
- Eastern / - / - / √ / √ / √ / - / √ / 4
Total / 1 / 2 / 4 / 8 / 6 / 6 / 8 / 35

Note: N – North, S – South, E – East, W – West; *growth corridor ** Hawassamilkshed

At the time, selection of commodities was based on regional government priorities (present and future market potential), market infrastructure, available capacity, or lack thereof to develop the commodity. Preference was given to Zones in which IPMS was operational since the IPMS district could function as a demonstration and learning site for the future LIVES sites.

During the LIVES planning phase, the list of proposed commodities and selected zones should be reviewed, and revised if necessary, based on wider participation (including national participation), revised/modified regional priorities and emerging new initiatives which can either lead to duplication or synergies.

Once regional commodities and zones have been decided upon, clusters of districts in which the selected commodities can be produced should be identified. Expert consultation meeting in each zone with regional and zonal representatives could be used to identify potential districts in the zones. The first step in this process would be to complete the following zonal commodity matrix. The expert consultation meeting ranks each District in terms of its potential for the development of each commodity - only those commodities which are considered for a zone should be ranked (zones should not have more than 4 priority commodities). A ranking scale of 0 to 3 can be used i.e. 0 = no potential, 1 = limited potential, 2 = medium potential and 3 = high potential.

Table 2 District commodity ranking matrix

Zone / Beef /live
animals / Chicken
meat/eggs / Honey
& bee wax / Milk / SR meat/
live animals / Fruits / Veg-
etables / Total
District 1
District 2
District 3
District n

Districts with the highest combined commodity scores should be put on zonal maps to view potential for clustering of production as well as watershed development potential.If Districts with highest scores are located in geographically separated areas, geographical District clusters may be formed around each of these high score Districts. A choice can then be made between various cluster options in the Zone. A set of GIS maps showing different characteristics for the selected Zones/Districts has been prepared, to support this selection process. In the end, a maximum of 3 clustered districts should be agreed upon for each zone. In these districts the project will provide/facilitate knowledge, technical assistance and TOT capacity development to introduce innovative production, input supply, processing and marketing interventions for the selected commodities. Other districts in the Zone which have high potential for one or more of the zonal commodities can be assisted through learning events.

Once the 3 Districts have been identified in each zone, the production development potential of the zonal commodities should be identified, based on expert knowledge, quick field visits and secondary data. Potential can be can be expressed at Peasant Association (PA) level by indicating 0=no potential, 1 = potential by commodity and PA (see table 3)

TABLE 3: Recommendation domain areas (Peasant Association) selected zonal commodities

Region/Zone / Beef /live
animals / Chicken
meat/eggs / Honey
& bee wax / Milk / SR meat/
live animals / Fruits / Veg-
etables / Total
PA 1
PA 2
PA n

2.2 Description District Agricultural System and number of agricultural producers

Some basic description and statistics on the biophysical and socio economic information for each of the selected Districts can be summarized in table 1 (one for each District) during the planning phase.An assessment of the agricultural and commodity system will be conducted during the planning LIVES implementation phase.

Table 4 Summary description and baseline statistics agricultural production systems District ..

Characteristic / Description/statistics
Farming systems (simple classification – commercial, small holder, mixture) / FS1.
FS2.
FS3.
Rainfall (average of recent 10 years and its coefficient of variation) / Can be provided by HQ from GIS maps (Yasin)
Soil type (coverage and distribution) / Can be provided from GIS maps (Yasin)
Altitude range / Can be provided from GIS maps (Yasin)
Temperature / Can be obtained from GIS maps (Yasin)
Land use (ha)
- Rain fed crops / Cereals (which)
Pulses(which)
Vegetables(which)
-Irrigated crops / Source(groundwater/river), delivery of water (well, pump, diversion structure) acting as collective or individual - irrigation scheme?
Vegetables (which)
Fruits(which)
Cereals(which)
-Grazing/pasture / Open grazing
Controlled grazing
Private grazing
-Forests/woodlots
Livestock
Improved Dairy cows
Local Dairy cows
Oxen
Sheep
Goats
Poultry
Bee colonies/hives

To estimate the number of beneficiary farmers in each of the selected Districts, the following procedure is proposed.

For each of the PAs in the selected Districts (see Table 3) , population data (households) should be obtained including total no of households, and households involved in each of the commodities (gender disaggregated) The information can be entered in the table 5 below, i.e one for each District:

Table 5 Estimated number of farm households (current year)involved in production of selected commodity in District …………

PA name / PApop (HH) / Commodity 1 / Commodity 2 / Commodity 3 / Commodity 4
Male HH / Fem HH / Male HH / Fem HH / Male HH / Fem HH / Male HH / Fem HH / Male HH / Fem HH
PA 1
PA 2
PA - n

Summary tables can be produced by commodity by zone and Region.

This obtaining this data will be a time consuming process and it therefore advised to have either a zonal officer or district officers assigned the task of collection this information (project can cover cost). The team needs to check on the quality and uniformity of the data thus collected.

2.3 Assessment value chain actors and service providers PIP

During the planning phase of the PIP, an initial assessment of the value chain actors and service providers is required to estimate potential partners/stakeholders/beneficiaries for LIVES. More in depth assessments will take place during the implementation phase. The first step in the assessment is an inventory of value chain actors and service providers for the development of a specific commodity. Value chain actors deal with the production of agricultural outputs and inputs (intermediary outputs such as seeds, seedlings, pullets etc) and processing/marketing of agricultural outputs. They can be found at federal/regional/zonal and District level. Description and estimates of the number of commodity producers in each of the selected Districts are dealt with separately (see section 2). Service providers are suppliers of agricultural inputs (seeds, equipment) and services (AI, health, pump repair, pump rental, crop spraying etc.) and service providers generating /storing/sharing knowledge; building capacity and regulating the value chains. While producers of the commodities will only be identified at the District level, all other service providers and value chain actors are found at different hierarchical levels. Below is a table providing an overview of potential value chain actors and service providers for LIVES.

List of potential value chain actors and service providers

Trade and regulatory bodies

Supply of livestock inputs/services (public and/or private)

i)Potential sources/suppliers of concentrate feeds

ii)Suppliers of veterinary drugs and services

iii)Sources/suppliers of improved genetic animal

iv)Providers of technical and advisory services

v)Providers of financial services.

vi)Providers of market information

Sale of livestock products

i)Local traders/middlemen

ii)Potential large-scale consumers of animal products (universities, army camps)

iii)Export abattoirs

iv)Dairy processing industries

Supply of irrigation inputs/services

i)Irrigation system developers and managers

ii)Irrigation equipment (pumps, drip, sprinkler, storage etc)

iii)Rental, Repair, maintenance service

iv)Water-users associations

Supply of (irrigated) agricultural inputs/services

i)Suppliers of agro chemicals, fertilizers

ii)Suppliers of seeds, seedlings, grafting materials

iii)Crop spraying services

iv)Storage facilities

Sale of (irrigated) agricultural products

i)Local traders/middlemen

ii)Potential large-scale consumers of irrigated agricultural products (traders, universities, food processors)

iii)Exporters such as horticultural businesses, associations

Educational institutions

i)TVETs, Universities and specialized educational institutions which provide training in hard and soft skills for extension staff and agribusiness entrepreneurs for selected livestock and irrigated agricultural commodities.

ii)Universities who are willing to partner with the project to define and conduct research with thesis students

Research institutions

i)Agricultural Research Centers, which can be involved in undertaking research and defining and conducting/supervision of MSc thesis research

ii)EDRI

iii)International research centers

Government offices

i)Extension departments

ii)Input supply units for agricultural inputs (irrigation equipment, fruits, pullets etc.)

iii)Gender

iv)Environment

v)Cooperative department

vi)Marketing agency

Projects/programs

i)The project will identify and collaborate with government and NGO implemented projects such as the PSNP/FSP and SLM to create, complement and create synergy.

Agricultural output producers

i)Small scale mixed farms

ii)Commercial specialized farms

The inventory of value chain actors at federal/regional, zonal and district level – following the selection of commodities/zones and districts - can be summarized in table 6. The initial list can be developed with the help of key informants and may evolve over time as information becomes available through interaction. Collection of zonal and District level information may take time and may be handled by a zonal and/or District staff members. The regional team will need to check quality and uniformity.

Table 6 Regional/ zonal and district level inventory of value chain actors and service providers (one form for each level, one form for each targeted district)

Commodity: ………

Location: …… (Region, zone, district)

Service providers- including projects/programs supporting the development of the commodity with knowledge and capacity development, services and external inputs. A summary of the main service providers by category.
1 Knowledge management (research, extension, radio stations etc)
2 Gender
3 Skills development
4 Credit
5Irrigation/livestock specific services and external inputs (chemicals, equipment etc)
6Relevant projects (GO/NGOs)
7
Value chain actors in production/supply of agricultural inputs/services and processing/marketing of the commodity (this should include district level production of inputs). District/PA producers of outputs are already summarized in Table 5. This table should however include producers of agricultural inputs, such as seeds, seedlings, pullets etc.
1 Processing marketing
2Input prodcuers
3
4
5
6
7

Next, the most important of these value chain actors and service providers need to be briefly described/assessed including role, capital, geographical coverage, strength and weaknesses and linkages with other actors and service providers. The information can be obtained from secondary sources (reports, studies), interviews with key informants, field visits. A from for the description of each actor/service provider is attached. These characteristics for each service provider/actor can be summarized in table 7.

Table 7 Description individual value chain actor/service provider

Commodity:

Name: (see inventory form)
Location:
Main role in relation to commodity (capacity/knowledge, credit, supply/production inputs: processing/marketing – one organization can have more than one role – pay attention to the role in relation to gender):
Geographical coverage (region, zone, districts, PA):
Capital base (service providers: qualified staff, transport, equipment, operational budget – actors: production/processing capacity)
Strength and weaknesses (performance):

3 Data/information analyses

Data from the revised table 1 in each Region should be communicated to LIVES HQ after the consultative meeting to prepare revised sets of Maps of commodities by Zone, Region and Nation - Yasin.

Data from table 2 and 3should be communicated to LIVES HQ after zonal meeting to prepare PA, District commodity maps by Zone, Region and National level –Yasin.

Yasin to provide GIS data for biophysical characteristics table 4 and prepare summary maps/data of biophysical characteristics by Zone, Region, Nation i.e. – total area in elevation classes, soil type, rainfall etc.(to be used later for sampling baseline data)

Data from table5 should be communicated to LIVES HQ after the District level data collection to prepare excel sheets with summarized numbers of beneficiaries by commodity/district, Zone, Region, nation – Aklilu responsible for excel.

Information from table 7(region, Zones, Districts) should be analyzed by each regional team to determine key value chain actors and service providing institutes and their human capacity by commodity (by service providing category). This assessment should also lead to the identification of partner service institutions which should be involved in implementing the project activities (capacity development, research, knowledge management)

Also each regional team can look at the linkages between the key service providers, producers and other value chain actors using actor matrix tables to show linkages (0 no linkages, w = weak linkage, s= strong linkage)

Actor linkage matrix for commodity

Act 1 / Act 2 / Act 3 / SP 1 / SP 2 / SP 3 / SP 4
Act1
Act 2
Act 4
SP 1
SP 2
SP 3
SP 4

.