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n the late 1990s, a vast gulf separated poor farmers in the northern Nicaragua province of Jinotega from the potential market represented by the country’s leading national supermarket chain, La Colonia. Te farm- ers grew meager quantities of cabbage, lettuce, and


tomatoes that brought them hardly any income. More than three-quarters of the province’s population was living on less than a dollar a day. What they really needed were good seeds, better irrigation, and a reliable market for their goods.


Meanwhile, La Colonia was having its own problems. It imported fresh produce from neighboring countries, but this arrangement was expensive and slow. When it arrived at La Colonia, the produce was often wilted, bruised, or rotting. What the supermarket chain needed was a good local supplier of fruits and vegetables.


Enter TechnoServe, a nongovernmental organization (NGO) with lots of experience connecting farmers to markets. Techno- Serve helped the farmers start a cooperative and obtain financing so they could buy better-quality seeds. Advisers helped the farmers carry out safety and quality-control measures that would meet the supermarket chain’s stringent standards. Te farmers started planting high-quality seeds, improved their irrigation system, and staggered their plantings to increase harvests. Soon they were selling lettuce and other produce to La Colonia, and other buyers as well, including a distributor for Walmart. In 2008, the cooperative’s revenues were US$300,000, and the farmers, whose incomes have risen significantly, can now afford to send their children to school, an expense that was previously out of reach for them.


Tis is an agricultural value chain in action. It is simply a supply chain that has been designed to add and retain value at each step along the way, from production to final sale, with the ultimate goal of meeting consumers’ demand.


“Population is increasing, incomes are increasing, demand is booming,” says John McDermott of IFPRI. “Tere are lots of opportunities, and someone is going to meet this demand. We want to ensure that poor people will benefit, whether they are


Hauling goods to market in Peru. 15


© 2005 J. Banning/Panos


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