arm resilient agr arm

RESILIENCE BUILDINGMECIS ECONOMIC JUSTICE COMMUNITY 0F PRACTICE LEARNING WORKSHOP

ARMENIA TEAM MARCH 17-20, 2014

FACILITATING PRODUCTIVE AND RESILIENCE SMALLHOLDER AGRICULTURE DEVELOPMENT IN ARMENIA

NUMBER OF BENEFICIARIES: 6000 (3600 women and 2500 men)

LOCATION – Vayots Dzor and Tavush regions of Armenia

STAFF AND PARTNER NAMES:

OXFAM Economic Justice team (5 persons)

BSC – Business Support Centre

SCVIC – Scientific Centre for Vegetable and Industrial Crop

PROJECT DURATION; 2010-2017

SECTION I: CONTEXT ANALYSISArmenia

Population: 3.1 million

GDP per capita $5,279

Gender inequality ranking (out of 146): 60

Rural Poverty rate: 37%

Number of farmers: 340,000

Country challenges:

• Big number of small-holder farmers,

• Unfavourable weather conditions

• Weak involvement of private sector,

• Lack of sufficient natural resources,

• Lack of market access

• Lack of access to agricultural services,

• Lack of access to extension services,

• Lack of access to financial resources (credits, micro-credits)

SECTION II: MAIN INTERVENTIONS• Strengthening Resilience of Smallholder Agriculture in Tavush and Vayots Dzor

regions• Creation of adaptive rural agricultural model (greenhouses with drip irrigation),• Successfully piloted the Pre-Vulnerability Assessment in Tavush and Vayots Dzor regions• Establishment of community based business and social enterprises,• Establishment of Regional Farm School (Tavush region), • Coops/smallholder farmers’ access to Micro-credit/zero interest loans (500-600 GBP;/ farmers (100 GBP),

(64% of loan takers are women),

• Women Economic Empowerment and Leadership• Establishment of women cooperatives in Vayots Dzor and Tavush regions,• Establishment of business and social enterprises• Food Female Hero/GROW Campaigns

• Enterprise Development Project• Construction of Food and Berries Processing Plants in Ayrum community,• Increasing the role of women farmers in food value chain through sourcing berries and fruits from poor

women collectors,• Creating employment opportunities for about 60 people, particularly women,• Sourcing products from neighboring 10 communities (with about 1800 collectors 70% of which are women)

• Advocacy through multi-stakeholder alliances/platforms• Intensive work with Agricultural Alliance and DRR National Platform

SECTION III: STAKEHOLDER ANALYSIS

• Engaging multi-stakeholder alliances/platforms (AA, DRR National Platform, CSPN)• Influencing national policies on Agricultural development/Food Security

and Agricultural Risk reduction,• Generating recommendations for policy change,• Public campaigns and events,

• Creating linkages between private sector and smallholder farmers• Mapping private sector companies in Armenia,• Promoting marketing capacities of cooperatives (forwarding contracts,

promo materials, booklets, website),• Sensitization of private sector (national processors, big traders) to

source farmer coops’ produce

SECTION IV: ACHIEVEMENTS• 30% increase of income of smallholder farmers, particularly women

(60%) through involvement in coops’ enterprises

• Increased yield of smallholder farmers (cooperatives)

• 18 agri-coops established in 18 rural communities inTav.& VD)

• Access to high-value adaptive and resilient crops (tomato, cucumber, bean, pepper, broccoli, cherry tomato etc),

• Access to innovative seeds breeding, cultivation and reproduction technologies,

• Available capacity for production of high value vegetable crops and seeds/seedlings breeding(reproduction)

• Improved access to knowledge/education and new agricultural practices on soil husbandry in resource scarce communities through farm school

• Available pre-vulnerability assessment data for target communities

• Joint advocacy through Agricultural Alliance/ DRR Platform (e.g. Agricultural Insurance)

• Establishment of (attractive) replicable rural business model (EDP)

SECTION V: SUCCESS AND CHALLENGES

SUCCESS

Creation of a Social Investment Fund for allocations for community social projects

Availability of seeds reproduction

Established relations with SCVIC and extension services/RASC (Regional Agricultural Support Centre)

Successful advocacy for development of Agricultural Risk Reduction Project

Established paid employment mechanism for cooperative members (5-6 persons per cultivation season),

Attracting new funding opportunities for EDP/Leveraging (CARE, Orange)

CHALLENGES

Cooperative management – Need for improving the system of internal structured management and more delegation of tasks among all members,

Marketing knowledge – Need for developing capacities of the cooperatives in marketing of their produce and proper business planning (agricultural sale)

Need for additional funding resources for EDP,

SECTION VI: LEARNING AND RECOMMENDATIONS• More intensive work with agricultural cooperatives to

promote group work and social corporative thinking,

• Build capacities of cooperatives in financial management (allocation of income/profit etc),

• Present the efficiency and affordability of piloted models to make it more attractive for stakeholders,

• Advocacy for replication of rural community based adaptive and business models at national, provincial and local levels,

• Work on government’s existing policies and commitments (both national and international),

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Education