My recent experience with an exercise called “Value Chain Development” has certainly helped me overcome my perception about participatory exercises. I took up this project in October 09 and carried out the process till November 09. These two months, while I spent the maximum time in the field, helped me understand the process in a comprehensive manner, overcome a lot of my inhibitions about participatory methodologies, brought to me a sense of achievement and more importantly re-established my faith in participatory methodologies. Below are the excerpts of my encounter with VALUE CHAIN DEVELOPMENT.
There are 220 sheds (SME) at Jabalpur; possessing approximately 35000 animals; 95% of which are buffaloes. The daily milk output is estimated to be in the 125,000 to 150,000 litre range. The annual buffalo sale for slaughter is in 30,000 to 40,000 ton range. The annual buffalo dung output is 2.5 to 3.0 lakh tons. The sale of young calf is estimated at around 20,000 per year. There are dedicated villages involved in rearing of the buffallows during the dry period. Large number of small dairy farms at village level, 440 Dairy co-operatives (22,000 members) produce 35 -40,000 litres of milk / day.
There exists a strong Business Association comprising of 171 members under the banner of Jabalpur Pashupalak Evan Dugdh Utpadak Kisan Mahasangh. Jabalpur city has a very reputed Agriculture University; Jawaharlal Nehru Krishi Vishwavidyalaya (JNKVV) and a Veterinary College. Department of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services conduct special animal health camps and Artificial Insemination services, pregnancy diagnosis services etc.
Value chain development is described by ILO as under: A value chain is a sequence of target-oriented combinations of production factors that create a marketable product or service from conception to the final consumption. This includes activities such as design, production, marketing, distribution and support services to the final consumer. The activities that comprise the value chain can be contained within a single firm or divided among different firms, as well as within a single geographical location or spread over wider areas. The term Value Chain refers to the fact that value is added to preliminary products through the combination of other resources. (ILO, 2006)
The process was divided in small phases, such as: Understanding the dairy sector, Hypothesis Workshop, Initial Assessment, Start-up workshop (Validating the findings), Detailed discussions with stakeholders & Analysis, Result presentation and proposals, Formation of steering group, Facilitation to develop action plans by the stakeholders and Steering group meetings (Update and future plans).
In the beginning, an in depth research of Jabalpur dairy sector was carried out by the representatives from TLA. It resulted in a well documented report that gave a lot of clarity about the sector.
This workshop began with sharing the objectives and results expected out of this process. The process of value chain development began with a workshop where different stakeholders of dairy sector were present. The facilitators shared their understanding about the sector based on the secondary information and encouraged the stakeholders to share about the dairy sector in Jabalpur. A comprehensive first hand information was available by the end of this workshop.
The initial assessment phase was to meet the important stakeholders who are related to the sector in a direct manner. This process was carried out where the facilitator got involved in discussion with the stakeholders in an informal way to understand each of their perspective separately. This phase helped the facilitators to develop a value chain map on the basis of the information gathered.
The start-up workshop was the platform where the maximum numbers of stakeholders representing almost all the sub-sectors were present. The findings of the previous phase were shared with them and they were encouraged to validate the findings. Many addition and deletion took place in terms of the value chain of dairy cluster of Jabalpur. Many corrections were made by the participants that got included in the findings at the end of this phase.
Detailed stakeholders level discussions across the sub-sector took place. A series of one to one discussions, group discussions took place to understand the sector. Various new information and addition to the value chain came across that gave a new shape to the exercise. Interactions with different stakeholders helped to have a comprehensive understanding about the sector.
Before organizing a result presentation workshop the VCD team along with representatives from the sector analyzed the information and came out with different proposals at each of the value chain level. The proposals were shared with the stakeholders and validation and finalization of these proposals were done. The catch in this phase was to ensure that the proposals are stakeholders driven and not facilitating agency driven.
Very carefully the selection of the word steering group was made, to ensure that the group remains as a working group and not act as any other committees or platform. Concept of the steering group was shared to the stakeholders and many of the representatives volunteered to be a member of the steering group. The steering group is a group of individuals/organizations to push the proposals forward and ensure that the proposals are implemented.
The VCD team further met the agencies/individuals entrepreneurs to facilitate develop an action plan based on the proposals they shown interest in.
Two steering group meetings have been organized and preparatory works such as identification of a chairman and secretariat has been done. The steering group has also discussed the agenda related to implementation of the proposals.
The catch here is that a journey through all these phases has helped the team learn the importance of a participatory exercise in true sense. Responses and initiatives from the stakeholders in phases where proposals were discussed and steering group was formed have been immense. As the response of the stakeholders was very positive it ultimately was very encouraging for the team to see that the whole process reached to a level that looked un-certain in the beginning of the process. To make it a part of my write-up and it is also worthy to mention that out of the thirteen proposals that were proposed as many as eight have already begun and are in different phases of implementation. The interesting part is that, all the proposals that are being implemented have been done solely on the expenditures of the stakeholders and no funding has been pumped in.
Value Chain Development has fetched for me and for the whole team an immense sense of pride and has surely restored the belief that if any exercise which is based on the principles of Participatory Learning and Action and is carefully facilitated, the results are going to be much more than what was expected in the beginning of the process.
There exists a strong Business Association comprising of 171 members under the banner of Jabalpur Pashupalak Evan Dugdh Utpadak Kisan Mahasangh. Jabalpur city has a very reputed Agriculture University; Jawaharlal Nehru Krishi Vishwavidyalaya (JNKVV) and a Veterinary College. Department of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services conduct special animal health camps and Artificial Insemination services, pregnancy diagnosis services etc.
Value chain development is described by ILO as under: A value chain is a sequence of target-oriented combinations of production factors that create a marketable product or service from conception to the final consumption. This includes activities such as design, production, marketing, distribution and support services to the final consumer. The activities that comprise the value chain can be contained within a single firm or divided among different firms, as well as within a single geographical location or spread over wider areas. The term Value Chain refers to the fact that value is added to preliminary products through the combination of other resources. (ILO, 2006)
The process was divided in small phases, such as: Understanding the dairy sector, Hypothesis Workshop, Initial Assessment, Start-up workshop (Validating the findings), Detailed discussions with stakeholders & Analysis, Result presentation and proposals, Formation of steering group, Facilitation to develop action plans by the stakeholders and Steering group meetings (Update and future plans).
In the beginning, an in depth research of Jabalpur dairy sector was carried out by the representatives from TLA. It resulted in a well documented report that gave a lot of clarity about the sector.
This workshop began with sharing the objectives and results expected out of this process. The process of value chain development began with a workshop where different stakeholders of dairy sector were present. The facilitators shared their understanding about the sector based on the secondary information and encouraged the stakeholders to share about the dairy sector in Jabalpur. A comprehensive first hand information was available by the end of this workshop.
The initial assessment phase was to meet the important stakeholders who are related to the sector in a direct manner. This process was carried out where the facilitator got involved in discussion with the stakeholders in an informal way to understand each of their perspective separately. This phase helped the facilitators to develop a value chain map on the basis of the information gathered.
The start-up workshop was the platform where the maximum numbers of stakeholders representing almost all the sub-sectors were present. The findings of the previous phase were shared with them and they were encouraged to validate the findings. Many addition and deletion took place in terms of the value chain of dairy cluster of Jabalpur. Many corrections were made by the participants that got included in the findings at the end of this phase.
Detailed stakeholders level discussions across the sub-sector took place. A series of one to one discussions, group discussions took place to understand the sector. Various new information and addition to the value chain came across that gave a new shape to the exercise. Interactions with different stakeholders helped to have a comprehensive understanding about the sector.
Before organizing a result presentation workshop the VCD team along with representatives from the sector analyzed the information and came out with different proposals at each of the value chain level. The proposals were shared with the stakeholders and validation and finalization of these proposals were done. The catch in this phase was to ensure that the proposals are stakeholders driven and not facilitating agency driven.
Very carefully the selection of the word steering group was made, to ensure that the group remains as a working group and not act as any other committees or platform. Concept of the steering group was shared to the stakeholders and many of the representatives volunteered to be a member of the steering group. The steering group is a group of individuals/organizations to push the proposals forward and ensure that the proposals are implemented.
The VCD team further met the agencies/individuals entrepreneurs to facilitate develop an action plan based on the proposals they shown interest in.
Two steering group meetings have been organized and preparatory works such as identification of a chairman and secretariat has been done. The steering group has also discussed the agenda related to implementation of the proposals.
The catch here is that a journey through all these phases has helped the team learn the importance of a participatory exercise in true sense. Responses and initiatives from the stakeholders in phases where proposals were discussed and steering group was formed have been immense. As the response of the stakeholders was very positive it ultimately was very encouraging for the team to see that the whole process reached to a level that looked un-certain in the beginning of the process. To make it a part of my write-up and it is also worthy to mention that out of the thirteen proposals that were proposed as many as eight have already begun and are in different phases of implementation. The interesting part is that, all the proposals that are being implemented have been done solely on the expenditures of the stakeholders and no funding has been pumped in.
Value Chain Development has fetched for me and for the whole team an immense sense of pride and has surely restored the belief that if any exercise which is based on the principles of Participatory Learning and Action and is carefully facilitated, the results are going to be much more than what was expected in the beginning of the process.
