Ten Guiding Principles

1. Work through farmer associations/cooperatives (and commodity groups as they form). Earlier systems based largely on personal visits to farms have not been successful in light of small budgets, too few extension agents, and inadequate skills of extension agents. Farmer associations provide the vehicle for reaching large numbers of farmers quickly and efficiently.

Assist producer associations to build themselves, over time, into national cooperatives through focused programs of training in governance, leadership, management and quality controls.

2. Work through partnerships to strengthen farmer associations around key economic opportunities to add value and respond to market demand.

Build private sector partnerships. Make the private sector a stakeholder in the initiative. In the PEARL example, the initial investment of U.S. and European coffee roasters and distributors evolved into close relationships. Industry experts continue to donate their time and resources to help make Rwanda specialty coffee a success and to pull Rwandan families out of poverty. In addition, they know they will have a quality product to sell and will benefit immensely from the meeting expectations for corporate responsibility and good public relations.

Partner with universities and other international institutions with a strong commitment to and knowledge of: 1) building sustainable partnerships that integrate applied research, community outreach and training, and 2) working closely with agro-industry in meeting market demand. Under the PEARL project, Michigan State University and Texas A&M University have played this important supporting role.

3. Be “action oriented” in program initiation. Above all this means “stop meeting and talking and get in the field and do something.” Planning, analysis and clear thinking are important, of course, but before long we need to recognize that the very best way to find out what works and what doesn’t is to get in the field, engage the key stakeholders, and experiment with best options. Solutions emerge naturally from action, not from drawn out planning. Too many initiatives get hung up at the planning stage.

4. Understand and accept risk; be prepared for failure. This concept goes hand-in-hand with the need to be action oriented. In failing one can see more clearly what is required for success.

PEARL provides a classic example of this point. When the PEARL project started in 2001 there was no mandate to work in the coffee subsector but lots of people were meeting and talking about coffee in Rwanda. Many people were of the conviction that Rwanda should get out of coffee. A small few thought that if Rwanda were to install washing stations as Burundi had, Rwanda could fetch better prices for its coffee. At the time, no one had thought specifically of the U.S. specialty coffee market which was a huge, growing, multi billion dollar industry.

As such, PEARL took a risk to muster partners and financial and human resource support for the country's first specialty coffee production and processing center in Maraba.

5. Reduce risk through demand orientation. If a project investment can help meet market demand chances of success are much higher. In the PEARL example, efforts were made to gather needed market intelligence right up front and then during the process, not after the fact. This meant calling in coffee industry experts from the U.S. to help assess opportunities and provide technical advice on how to proceed.

Keep radars open for favorable market trends like Fairtrade, organic certification, etc.

At the household level keep focused on rural income generation; this will ensure that you will meet farmer demand. Don’t get sidetracked with spin-off activities such as improved health care, AIDS, sports and other donor driven initiatives. These are all obviously important but in focusing extension on “cash first” we can contribute to development in all of these areas.

6. Focus on complete agricultural product supply chains "from farm to table." For targeted agricultural products, unique grades and standards (for food safety and quality) must be met at every step (transaction point) in the supply chain. Leave no step out. For example, to be successful in the specialty coffee industry the PEARL project has worked with farmer associations to improve product at all stages of the production, processing and marketing process. Key steps include:

At each step in the commodity supply chain involve key partners as necessary. You want dynamic partnerships not static ones with the same players.

Allow the project to take the risks for the producers in the "establishment" phase of supply chain development (the idea of pilot initiatives where the project purchases the product from the producer so they make something whether we are able to sell it or not).

Constantly massage each link in the supply chain to keep it in increasingly good working order. Preach and teach quality, quality and quality as the way to achieve increased rural incomes.

7. Ensure local government buy-in and support. The district level mayor's office can facilitate local participation, provide legitimacy to associations, help address legal and regulatory constraints. The PEARL project experience demonstrates this point vividly in the Maraba and COVEPAR examples.

8. Place emphasis on local ownership and management. Enduring commitment and sustainability will not occur without this. In the PEARL context this has meant interacting directly with producers, understanding them and their incentives and capacities and letting them understand you.

9. Build an integrated program of applied research that will address practical needs of the farmer and commodity associations. A good example of this is the current research being conducted by UNR on determining optimal timing of pesticide applications to eliminate pests that cause "potato taste" in coffee, thus radically increasing the return to farmers through a higher quality coffee.

10. Never overlook human resource training. It is essential to build institutions that will continue to train (at UNR, KIST, etc) agricultural scientists, agribusiness managers, and other professionals who can provide technical and managerial leadership to farmer associations and private agro-enterprises.