Bernet, T.

Devaux, A.

Horton, D.

López, G.

Ordinola, M.

Pico, H.

Thiele, Graham

Velasco, C.

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141Participatory Market Chains and Stakeholder Platforms: The Papa Andina StrategyParticipatory Market Chains andStakeholder Platforms:The Papa Andina StrategyNative potatoes grow better in the highest al-titude of the Andes, where small, semi-commer-cial farmers predominate. These farmers possessa deep knowledge of native potatoes and themost suitable cultivation methods for them intheir native environment. Native potatoes donot grow as well at lower altitudes, where morecommercially-oriented farmers grow modernvarieties and employ more industrial inputs.SOURCE:Devaux, A., C. Velasco, G. López, T. Bernet, M. Ordinola,H. Pico, G. Thiele and D. Horton. 2008. CollectiveAction for Innovation and Small Farmer MarketAccess: The Papa Andina Experience. CAPRiWorking Paper No. 68. International Food PolicyResearch Institute, Washington, D.C.Papa Andina is a regional initiative hosted by the International Potato Center that promotes pro-poor innovation for development in Andean potato-based production and marketing systems inBolivia, Ecuador, and Peru. With its national partners, Papa Andina seeks to contribute to povertyreduction by strengthening the capacity of small farmers to participate more effectively in marketsfor potatoes and potato-based products and by facilitating the creation of new market opportuni-ties for their potatoes.Papa Andina StrategyThrough action research in Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador, Papa Andina and its research and develop-ment partners have developed two complementary approaches to enhance small-scale farmers’market access through collective action.142 Resources, Rights and CooperationA Sourcebook on Property Rights and Collective Action for Sustainable DevelopmentThe Participatory Market Chain Approach (PMCA)The PMCA was developed as an approach for identifying and exploiting new business opportuni-ties that benefit small-scale farmers by stimulating market-driven innovation of different types. Itengages market chain actors, researchers, and other service providers in identifying and analyzingpotential business opportunities. In addition, it helps to build trust among market actors andresearch and development organizations and to empower small farmers.Stakeholder PlatformsStakeholder platforms provide opportunities to bring small potato producers together with marketagents and agricultural service providers to identify common interests, share market knowledgeand carry out joint activities to develop new business opportunities.The PMCA involves three phases, each of which has specific objectives, core activities, and tangible outputs. Theentire process is usually implemented over a period varying from several months to a year.Innovations Using the PMCA• Commercial Innovation involves the development of new products or services for specific market niches, toadd value to potato production. In Bolivia, for example, new colored potato chip products made from native potatoeshave been introduced into the market.  In Peru, selected and washed fresh potatoes in plastic sacks of uniformvariety and weight have been introduced.• Technological Innovation involves improvements in the way commodities are produced or transformed. Theinteraction of researchers, development professionals, potato producers, and other groups has improved thedissemination of technological innovations and helped research organizations to align their research agendas tobetter contribute to innovation in the region.• Institutional Innovation relates to changes in attitudes, habits, or relationships among stakeholders, in order tocreate more favorable conditions for pro-poor innovation. New institutional arrangements such as stakeholderplatforms have helped deal with the lack of trust that is common in market chain interactions.Three Phases of PMCAFigure 1. Structure and Objectives of the Three Phases of PMCATime      Objective per phase  Market chain actors       Leading R&D institutionCOLLABORATIONPHASE 1To get to know the different marketchain actors’, with their activities,interests, ideas, and problems.- Market Chain Survey• Event 1PHASE 2To analyze in a participatory mannerpotential joint business opportunities- Work in thematic groups• Event 2PHASE 3To implement joint market innovations- new products- new technologies- new institutions- Work in thematic groups• Event 3           4-6 months     3-5 months2-4 monthsTRUSTINTEREST LEADERSHIPFACILITATIONBACKSTOPPING143Participatory Market Chains and Stakeholder Platforms: The Papa Andina StrategyA multi-stakeholder platform is a space for inter-action that aims to reduce conflict, build trust,and lead to coordination and joint action. Througha platform, things that none of its members couldachieve on their own can be accomplished.Papa Andina has applied the “stakeholder plat-form” concept to promote interaction, sociallearning, and collaboration between the diverserange of actors who may contribute to the inno-vation process. Platforms are a means to pro-mote collective action through utilization of  thefollowing functions:Stakeholder platforms promote collaborationbetween a diverse range of market actors.• Help stakeholders understand the interests and perspectives of other market chain actors andhelp small farmers take advantage of market opportunities.• Facilitate the process of social learning, discovery, and utilization of ideas, which contribute toempower the participants, especially small-scale farmers.Role of Collective Action in Papa Andina StrategyCollective action has been defined as voluntary action taken by a group to pursue common inter-ests or achieve common objectives. In pursuing its objectives, Papa Andina has promoted collec-tive action at various levels.Local Level. Papa Andina and its partners have promoted the organization of potato producers, inorder to empower small farmers, reduce marketing costs, and increase efficiency in the delivery oftechnical assistance.Market Chain Level. Papa Andina has fostered the creation of platforms that bring farmers to-gether with transporters, traders, processors, managers of supermarkets, researchers, extension agents,chefs, and others with a stake in the production and marketing of potatoes.National Level. Papa Andina and its partners have supported the formation of farmers’ organiza-tions such as the Consortium of Small Potato Producers in Ecuador and multi-stakeholder platformssuch as “Quality Agricultural Market Chains in Peru” for CAPAC.Regional Andean Level. The Papa Andina initiative itself represents a form of collective actionamong research and development partners.Pursuing Common ObjectivesWithin Papa Andina, different groups operating in different contexts at different levels have pursueddifferent specific objectives. However, a few broad objectives have been common to all the groups:• Empowerment and Capacity Development of group members at the different levels —from farmers to research organizations — by strengthening the capacities they need to partici-pate in innovation processes.144 Resources, Rights and CooperationA Sourcebook on Property Rights and Collective Action for Sustainable Development• Knowledge Sharing and Social Learning to build mutual understanding and trust for col-laboration and joint actions among R&D partners.• Building Networks and Relationships to encourage partners to go beyond their traditionalalliances and experiment with new partners and new forms of collaboration.• Pro-poor Innovations that benefit poor potato producers by identifying and developing com-mercial opportunities for native potatoes grown by small farmers in the Andean highlands.Challenges in Linking Smallholders with MarketsIn the work of Papa Andina with the PMCA and stakeholder platforms in Bolivia, Ecuador andPeru, there have been five main challenges:1) Providing adequate facilitation for group work. Effective facilitation of groups implementingthe PMCA and developing stakeholder platforms requires well-trained facilitators who under-stand the complexity of developing business opportunities with small-scale farmers, withoutbeing paternalistic.2) Ensuring the sustainability of collective action. Smallholders generally face higher marketingcosts than larger farmers because of their small volume of marketable surplus, their lack ofbusiness skills, and lack of access to information and technology.Smallholders generally face highermarketing costs because of theirsmall volume of marketablesurplus.3) Scaling up. Factors such as lack of business tools and skillsneeded to adequately evaluate business opportunities,as well as limited time, market size, and financial re-sources, have prevented the expansion of markets andlimited the number of farmers and businesses involved.4) Costs of participation. The PMCA and development of stake-holder platforms involve participatory processes that are,or seem to be, time consuming, especially in the begin-ning, before tangible results have been produced.5) Gender equity. Women have participated in the workcarried out in the three countries; however, much re-mains to be done to significantly impact gender equity.Papa Andina intends to address these issues through thefollowing approaches:• Capacity building of partners in the areas of marketanalysis, chain development, participatory approaches, product development, social responsi-bility and areas where women can play more significant roles in collective action.• Particular attention will be paid to strengthening their capacity to access and effectively man-age resources for promoting private-sector development.• Monitoring, evaluation, documentation of Papa Andina cases in order to draw lessons from itswork and to scale up use of the PMCA and stakeholder platforms.145Participatory Market Chains and Stakeholder Platforms: The Papa Andina Strategy• Knowledge-sharing measures such as development of guidelines for approaches that have po-tentially broad applications. Training materials have been developed on participatory meth-ods for collective action at different levels, such as the PMCA User Guide prepared in Spanishand English and a Trainer Guide.Lessons LearnedThe experience of Papa Andina and its partners demonstrates how different forms of collectiveaction involving different stakeholders can stimulate commercial, technical, and institutional in-novations that contribute to market integration and poverty reduction. Some of the key lessonsidentified are as follows:Lesson 1: Collective action can stimulate innovation in ways that contribute to smallholdermarket integration and poverty reduction.The interaction of people participating in group activities strengthened business contacts, socialnetworks, knowledge sharing, and interpersonal trust. In Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru, collectiveaction led to technical, commercial, or institutional innovation that in turn contributed to im-proved market participation of smallholders and improved livelihoods of the poor.Lesson 2: Diversity within multi-stakeholder platforms can be a valuable source of com-mercial, technical and institutional innovation.Diversity promoted learning and innovation and resulted in new products, processes, norms, andbehaviors. Multi-stakeholder initiatives directly benefit those participating in these platforms asthey gain important insights, make new and interesting contacts, and possibly access new businessopportunities.Lesson 3: Commercial innovation can drive subsequent technological and institutional in-novation.Experiences with the PMCA in Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador have shown that commercial innova-tions (i.e. development of new products) can stimulate the use of new production technologies aswell as new institutions. The launching of native potato products, for example, has stimulated theformation and strengthening of farmers’ organizations to facilitate marketing and improvements inproduction and post-harvest practices.The launching of a new product basedon native potatoes can stimulatefurther innovations that benefit smallfarmers.Lesson 4: Collective action at different levels canproduce valuable synergies.Stakeholder platforms and the PMCA have proven to behighly complementary. Producer associations and stake-holder platforms at the local level have benefited frommarket chain development work that identified new mar-ket opportunities and built social and commercial net-works to link producers with market actors.Lesson 5: Collective action does not just happen —it needs good facilitation.Opportunities for information exchange and collectiveaction need to be actively created. This is especially truefor bringing together actors along the market chain whocompete in their daily business and whose time has ahigh opportunity cost. To guarantee active participation146 Resources, Rights and CooperationA Sourcebook on Property Rights and Collective Action for Sustainable Developmentof key actors in a participatory setting, good process facilitation is needed to generate tangiblebenefits for actors who get involved.Lesson 6: Biodiversity and cultural identity can add value to collective action for marketaccess.In Bolivia and Peru, where there is greater potato biodiversity than in Ecuador, commercial inno-vation with native potatoes has been a key element in linking small farmers to markets. Theproducts have a good potential to do well in external markets because they are seen as exotic andcoming from a well-recognized region, the Andes.Suggested ReadingsAntezana, I., T. Bernet, G. López y R. Oros (2008). Enfoque Participativo de Cadenas Productivas(EPCP): Guía para Capacitadores. Papa Andina/Centro Internacional de la Papa, Lima, Perú.Bernet, T., G. Thiele and T. Zschocke. 2006. Participatory Market Chain Approach (PMCA) UserGuide. Lima: International Potato Center (CIP) – Papa Andina.Bernet, T., Devaux, A., Thiele, G., López, G., Velasco, C., Manrique, K., Ordinola, M. 2008. TheParticipatory Market Chain Approach: Stimulating Pro-Poor Market-Chain Innovation. ILACBrief 21, ILAC-CGIAR.Thiele, T., Devaux, A., Velasco, C., and Horton, D. (2007). Horizontal Evaluation - FosteringKnowledge Sharing and Program Improvement within a Network. American Journal ofEvaluation, 28: 493-508.Sourcebook on Resources, Rights, and Cooperation, produced by the CGIAR Programon Collective Action and Property Rights (CAPRi)

Participatory Market Chains and Stakeholder Platforms: The Papa Andina strategy.

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Participatory Market Chains and Stakeholder Platforms: The Papa Andina strategy.

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